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THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


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JESSE ROSENBERGER, 1827-1909 


Shoemaker, Farmer, Nurseryman, and Sometime (Baptist) Preacher 


THE PENNSYLVANIA 
GERMANS 


A Sketch of Their History and Life, 
of the Mennonites, and of Side 
Lights from the Rosenberger Family 


By 


JESSE LEONARD ROSENBERGER 
Author of Through Three Centuries, Etc. 










FETE 
ESN pp J 





THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
} CHICAGO ILLINOIS 


COPYRIGHT 1923 By 
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 


All Rights Reserved 


Published November 1923 


Composed and Printed By 
The University of Chicago Press 
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 


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PREFACE 


This volume is the outgrowth of an effort on 
the part of the author to get from the accounts 
that have been preserved of the Pennsylvania 
Germans in general and from various other sources 
such light as he could on the probable history and 
life of some of his forbears, who disdained to 
keep any records of themselves or chronicles of 
their times. By putting into this form the more 
important results of his study, with some of the 
matter brought down into 1923, he hopes that it 
may be useful to others. 

General historical importance is attached to the 
Pennsylvania Germans not only because they 
contributed largely to the development and enrich- 
ment of their state, particularly agriculturally, 
but also because until within comparatively 
recent times they lived practically by themselves 
and tenaciously maintained, with local variations, 
the language, views, and customs which the 
German settlers in Pennsylvania brought from the 


Vv 


736119 


vi PREFACE 


Old World. But most of these distinctive and 
interesting features are now rapidly being changed, 
or they have already been changed. 

Practically all of the illustrations, with the 
exception of the frontispiece, are from photographs 
which were taken during the past year especially 


for them. 
JESSE LEONARD ROSENBERGER 


CHICAGO 
October, 1923 


CONTENTS 


List oF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


CHAPTER 
I. THE PENNSYLVANIA BACKGROUND. 


II. Harpsutps LEFT AND ENCOUNTERED . 
III. WitH THE PIONEERS 
‘\, IV. GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES . 
\ V. RELIGION AND EDUCATION . 
VI. Tort MENNONITES 
VII. PROVERBS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 
VIII. GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS 


INDEX . . e * e ° ° ° ° ° ° 


vii 


PAGE 
1x 


Hb i 
24 
42 
69 
86 
127 


139 


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


Peete LOSENBERGER, 1627-1900.) 6) 0) he a yi aL 


SCENE AT THE VILLAGE OF SKIPPACK, WITH DAISIES 
IN THE FOREGROUND 


SCENE ON INDIAN CREEK, NEAR HARLEYSVILLE 


BP EP PACK CREE RY Wiis allie GWA fa ined iy LO 
PERKIOMEN CREEK AND BRIDGE BUILT IN 1798-99) 
290) C8 NB Keo Oh 0A NORD TRO ce ea Re IO 
“st Types or AMISH Men, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN OF 
PAWCASTE RR COUNT Vieni a ah Li we WAM al ML ae 
WINTER SCENE ON CONESTOGA CREEK, SOUTH OF 
STA wn Sa] TDD. oe A ey Mle eke A 
SEMA OOR. WORM FENCES (00) (ier we co 36 
STONE House OF 1809 ON FORMER HEINRICH 
PORN MERCH TARMUN Adi alcm ante mtn cli al! AA 
THE RITTENHOUSE HOME BUILT IN 1707, NEAR 
Oe CAEARCTI VIN CM ys haa AY ule ee Ui ae (keh ea ek aa 
‘ CurB-MARKET SCENES IN LANCASTER . . . . = 50 


THE OLDEST BUILDING IN LANCASTER—FORMER 
ELAR (ed DICTA AN a pa Oe eA Ee 62 - 


A Row oF OLD-STYLE BuILpINncs, INCLUDING WHAT 
Beer OAT oF PAV IOR NIB he ul val a hig cave) "OD 


THE OLDEST LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA, AT 
MOONS OANA) Sik Nh eer DRE Se eae Trees Ae ake 


LUTHERAN CHURCH BUILT IN 1767, AT NEW HAn- 
Ch Sp 0 USCA a ESR AP AERA) AVES AOA CC (2 


1x 


x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


THE OLDEST SCHOOLHOUSE IN GERMANTOWN . . 76 


CLOISTER BUILDINGS AT EPHRATA OF EARLY GERMAN 
SEVENTH DAY, BAPTISTS). 005) Sor 


A TypIcaAL OLD PUBLIC SCHOOLHOUSE, AT FRAN- 
CONTA hie) hl he EST NAST 


xwAmIsH Boys PLAYING BALL AT INTERMISSION OF 
CHOOT hel SUE Us LEE UG as 


THE OLDEST MENNONITE CHURCH IN AMERICA, AT 
GERMANTOWN || 30) M00 DVD Le 


THE OLDEST BUILDING IN LANCASTER COUNTY— 
Here Hovse Bora IN -2719.5)'> 4) 


MENNONITE Loc MEETING-HousE BUILT ABOUT 
1700,, AT LANDISVILLE 0/0) 20 Goi eA 


CORNER OF INTERIOR OF OLD MENNONITE CHURCH | 
IN MONTGOMERY ‘COUNTY? 6) 0) VV Ree 


MENNONITE CHURCHES: AT FRANCONIA, LINE LEX- 
INGTON, WORCESTER, MILLWooD, MELLINGER’S, 


AND STRASBURG Bey ALSO) US AS OMT a 

\s Farm BvuILDINGS OF AN AMISH MENNONITE IN 
LANCASTER: ;COUNTY) 6) 000 LS OR ee 
AN OLD SPRINGHOUSE IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY . 122 


OLtp STONE HousE PERHAPS BUILT BY CHRISTIAN 
ROSENBERGER! 3) 054068) 0 


PART OF OLD CIDER PRESS AND FLOWERS OF THE 
Winn CARROT (UU Ss 


CHAPTER I 
THE PENNSYLVANIA BACKGROUND 


The general panoramic view in that portion of 
southeastern Pennsylvania that may be termed 
the original and distinctive home of the Pennsylva- 
nia Germans is an attractive one that is enhanced 
by the nature of the region, which is mainly a 
land of low hills and gently sloping valleys. 

In the spring of the year, and again in the 
autumn, a person sees there farms that, for 
purposes of diversification and rotation of crops, 
have been subdivided into fields, which, when 
looked at together, have a certain pleasing 
harmony and contrast of form and color—one 
field, perhaps, being a green meadow; another 
field, brownish plowed ground; and a third, an 
area of yellowish stubble. Then, there are small 
orchards, considerable tracts of woodland, and, 
very frequently, particularly along the fences, 
occasional trees that in summer may afford a 
grateful shade for weary toilers, or—when in 


I 


2 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


pastures—for cattle. But what possibly most 
attract the eyes of the observer are the clusters of 
farm buildings that are usually prominent in the 
picture, which latter may sometimes be made 
still more interesting by the inclusion in it of a 
rural church spire, of a small hamlet, or of a 
moderately pretentious village. 

During the summer the scene is changed by the 
transformation of what earlier was bare ground 
into, first, luxuriant fields of green, and, later, 
of ripened grain—some of the fields being of 
wheat, some of corn, and some of other cereals 
or crops. At the same time, the trees, with their 
abundant foliage prevent monotony. 

The landscape is also fine to look upon in winter, 
especially when everything is covered with snow, 
sparkling under a bright sunlight, the broad 
expanse of brilliant white being bounded by a 
somewhat shadowy circle of distant hills, and 
cross-marked by fences and trees. ‘This scene is 
improved, too, by the groups of buildings ‘which 
almost always include both a house and a barn of 
good dimensions, one of which two buildings may 
be white, and the other a bright red or a rich 


THE PENNSYLVANIA BACKGROUND 3 


yellow, relieved in a measure by an adjacent 
orchard or a grove of dark trees that, dismantled, 
often permit of a better view of the buildings than 
is obtainable from a distance in the summer. 

So far as the view thus described is the prod- 
uct of human labor, it is the product of the 
labor for approximately two centuries of successive 
generations of conscientious, sturdy, patient, 
hard-working, thrifty Pennsylvania Germans. 

Two hundred years—or nearly that—ago, 
when Heinrich Rosenberger settled as a pioneer 
about 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia, in 
Indian Creek Valley in what is now Franconia 
Township, Montgomery County, what he saw 
was very different from the present scene. The 
hills and the valleys were there, and everywhere 
in the surrounding country, substantially as they 
are today, but they were then as yet untilled by 
man, were covered with a heavy forest of princi- 
pally oak timber, and at best contained not more 
than a few log huts, which were widely separated 
from one another. The preceding human inhabit- 
ants of the region, some of whom might still be 
seen in some localities, were the Lenni-Lenape, or 


4 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Delaware Indians. Other denizens of the section 
were bears and wolves, deer, many species of 
smaller wild animals, wild turkeys, game and 
other birds of many kinds including at times 
great flocks of pigeons and crows. 

One particular feature of that land of hills and 
valleys that appealed strongly to the first white 
settlers was that there flowed through some of the 
valleys large creeks, and through many of the 
other valleys picturesque little streams of sparkling 
water, the most of which are too small to be seen 
in a general outlook over the country. Along 
these creeks, or beside these little brooks, the 
early settlers built their log cabins, because they 
were thus assured of having plenty of water for 
domestic use and for the live stock which they 
looked forward to possessing. Nor were people in 
those days troubled with fears of such waterways 
becoming polluted and conveying the germs of 
typhoid fever, or forming places for breeding 
disease-spreading mosquitos, especially those carry- 
ing malaria. 

The Germans were not of any appreciable 
number or influence among the first white settlers 





SCENE ON INDIAN CREEK, NEAR HARLEYSVIILE 





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THE PENNSYLVANIA BACKGROUND 5 


in what is now Pennsylvania, although there were 
a few Germans among the very early arrivals 
there. The discovery of the Delaware River is 
attributed to Henry Hudson, in 1609. He called 
it the “South River,” in contradistinction to 
what he termed the ‘‘ North River,” which is now 
the Hudson. In 1623 the Dutch began settling 
in small numbers along a portion of the Delaware. 
They devoted themselves chiefly to trading with 
the Indians for beaver skins and other furs. 
What is now Pennsylvania was included in what 
they claimed as New Netherland. Commencing 
in 1638, the Swedes established colonies at several 
places, notably on the west side of the Delaware, 
and to a limited extent on the Schuylkill. They 
were largely farmers, who used the waterways as 
their highways for travel. To them the whole 
region was known as New Sweden. ‘The English 
title dated ultimately from 1674. On March 4, 
1681, the charter for the province of Pennsylvania 
was granted by Charles the Second to William 
Penn. 

On October 28, 1682, Penn landed at Upland, 
which was then the capital. He changed its 


a 


6 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


name to Chester; and subsequently Philadelphia, 
which was laid out in 1682, was made the capital 
of the province. The total white population of 
the province in 1681 was between two and three 
thousand persons, the most of whom were English- 
men and Swedes. During the next two or three 
years there were added considerable numbers of 
people from England, Ireland, and Wales, many 
of them being Friends or Quakers—in other words, 
of the same religious convictions as was Penn 
himself. In 1683 Penn stated that Philadelphia 
had about fourscore houses and cottages. In 
October, 1684, another man wrote that it was 
supposed there were then in the city four hundred 
houses, great and small. An estimate made with 
regard to the population of the province in 1684 
indicated that it had been about doubled in three 
years. 

The first historically important arrivals in 


*Pennsylvania credited to the Germans were of 


Francis Daniel Pastorius in August, 1683, and of 
thirteen families (thirty-three persons) in October, 
1683, these families being from Crefeld, near 
Holland, which undoubtedly accounted in one 


THE PENNSYLVANIA BACKGROUND 7 


way or another for some of them having Dutch 
names. Pastorius came as the representative of 
what was designated the Frankfort Land Com-~ 
pany, an association of persons in Frankfort, 
Germany, which purchased 25,000 acres of land 
and used it for speculative purposes. He was 
a man of good education, had a legal training, and 
drew legal papers and wrote letters for persons 
desiring such services; but for his main vocation 
he soon engaged in teaching school, which he 
continued for about twenty years. 

Pastorius was decidedly of the opinion that 
it would be for the best interests of the Germans 
to settle by themselves, and not to be intermingled 
with the English, which he succeeded in inaugurat- 
ing by obtaining, though not without difficulty, 
a warrant for 6,000 acres of land in one tract— 
3,000 acres of it for the Crefelders and 3,000 acres 
for the Frankfort Land Company. The location x 
of the tract was some distance from the Delaware 
because all the land along the river had been 
previously taken by others. On a part of the 
tract, Germantown was founded through a survey 
on October 24, 1683. In its early form and 


8 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


development it was much like some of the old 
villages which may still be seen, notably in Lan- 
caster County, in that it was built mainly along 
the sides of one street. It eventually attained 
about 2 milesin length. It soon became important 
as a center both of industry and of influence 
among the Germans, in which latter respect it 
long maintained a supremacy. Thus began the 
separation of the German and the English settlers 
which was in the course of time to become very 
striking and was to contribute much toward the 
production of the Pennsylvania-German character. 

In a letter which he wrote from Philadelphia 
on March 7, 1684, Pastorius described German- 
town as being two hours distant from Philadelphia; 
that is, what is now a part of the latter city was 
then about 6 miles from the city. According to 
that letter, there was little open space to be found 
but everywhere only forests, in which there were 
massive oaks. On October 16, beautiful violets 
were found in the woods, and on the twenty-fifth 
there was discovered a wild grapevine that ran 
over a tree and had about four hundred clusters 
of grapes. The wild grapes, however, were 
rather small, and better for eating than for 


THE PENNSYLVANIA BACKGROUND 9 


making wine from them. The walnuts found in 
the woods had such thick shells and small kernels 
that it was deemed scarcely worth the trouble of 
opening them. ‘The chestnuts and the hazelnuts 
found were better. Of rattlesnakes there were 
more than were liked. But through the winter 
of 1683-84, which was a very cold one, no game 
could be found, although, according to some other 
accounts, game of various kinds was usually 
plentiful, in early years. 

From that time on a gradually increasing 
number of Germans came to make their homes in 
Pennsylvania, until they amounted to about 
one-third of the total population of the province, 
which latter the first census gave as 434,373 In 
1790. As three-fourths of these Germans were 
farmers who came with but little money, as time 
passed they went farther and farther from Phila- 
delphia and from Germantown to get their land, 
seeking as much as possible locations where there 
were no settlers of other nationalities, and taking 
land that then was not much desired by others on 
account of its distance from Philadelphia, the 
labor required to clear it, and perhaps a mis- 
apprehension as to the quality of the soil. Thus 


10 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


it came about that the Germans were soon pushing 

their way northwesterly toward the Skippack 

and the Perkiomen creeks, in Montgomery County. 

Thence they went northward into Lehigh, east- 

ward into Bucks, and westward into Berks, as* 
well as began early to settle in Lancaster and others 
counties, as the counties are at present formed 

and named. 

Nor was the settlement of the Germans by 
themselves so far as practicable their only form 
of segregation. Naturally people who came from 
the same locality in Germany, or who were 
related to one another, endeavored to settle as 
near together as circumstances permitted. But of 
greater general consequence was the extension of 
this tendency to the members of different religious 
denominations and sects, so that there were 
numerous distinct settlements of them, which 
helped very much toward the organization of 
churches and the establishment of schools. 

Some of the reasons why the Germans came 
to America as they did in the eighteenth century, 
and what many of them suffered on the way, are 
explained in the next chapter. 





PERKIOMEN CREEK AND BRIDGE BUILT IN 1798-99, AT COLLEGEVILLE 





CHAPTER II 
HARDSHIPS LEFT AND ENCOUNTERED 


According to tradition, Heinrich Rosenberger 
came from Zweibriicken, in the Palatinate. It 
may be conjectured that he came prior to 1727, 
because, while he might have come through some 
other port, he probably came through that of 
Philadelphia, and, beginning in that year, records 
were kept of the arrivals at the port of Phila- 
delphia, and his name does not appear in any of the 
lists. Why he came, as also why many other 
Germans came, can best be explained by referring 
to certain historical events. A consideration of 
these will also aid to a better understanding of 
the general type of the Pennsylvania Germans. 

Heavy toll was taken of the people of Germany 
by the Thirty Years’ War which ended in 1648. 
Some authorities compute that through it at least 
two-thirds of the population perished, and that 
more than two-thirds of the domestic animals 
and other forms of personal property were either 


PP 


12 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


consumed or destroyed. After that there contin- 
ued for years an application of the torch and a 
pillaging by bands of soldiers from the troops 
which were still quartered on the inhabitants of 
various localities. 

The next generation had the War of the Grand 
Alliance, and not long afterward occurred the 
War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted until 
1713; and from these wars the Palatinate in par- 
ticular suffered, as it had from the Thirty Years’ 
War. 

The peasants or farmers who survived that 
period had little, or nothing left. As a rule, 
the most of their furniture and their implements, 
their live stock and their poultry had either been 
taken from them or wantonly destroyed, and their 
houses had been burned, or razed. Consequently 
thereafter they found themselves with poor shelter, 
few furnishings, scanty rations, and not much 
besides their hands with which to do anything. 
They might be called the owners of their usually 
small farms; but the majority of them had to 
the lands only limited titles, to which were attached 
many burdensome conditions and _ restrictions, 


HARDSHIPS LEFT AND ENCOUNTERED 13 


while at any time they might be compelled to 
sell their interest in their land. Three whole 
days, or six half-days, each week, with his team, © 
if he had one, must each farmer work for the 
landlord to whom his obligations ran. The land- 
lord must be given a share of all the grains, 
fruits, and vegetables raised. He must be offered 
first whatever the farmer had to sell, and whatever 
the farmer wanted to buy must be bought from 
him, if he had it to sell. He had a supervision 
over the marriage of the farmer’s children, and 
a fine had to be paid to him for every marriage, 
while to each of his own children when they got 
married presents had to be given. Moreover, he 
had a right to call into his service for several years 
any of the farmer’s children who were able to 
work. Nor could they enter service elsewhere 
without first purchasing a license from him; and 
he took special pains to prevent their flight. 
His permission must also be obtained for the 
farmer to change his vocation, or to be away 
overnight. In addition, there was taxation by 
the state, and the farmer and his sons were 
subject to military service. 


14 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Both the nobility and the artisan class treated 
the farmers or peasantry as being at the bottom 
of the social scale, and they showed such a deter- 
mination to keep them there that neither the 
peasants nor their children had any appreciable 
chance to change their lot or to improve their 
condition. In the sphere into which they were 
born they must expect to live and die. In short, 
life for them was but a round of hard, monotonous 
toil, the most of the fruits of which went to the 
support of the state and the nobility. 

Then there was always more or less religious 
persecution. The Palatinate at times furnished 
an asylum for the religiously oppressed, and at 
other times was a place of oppression and persecu- 
tion. Whichever of these characters it at any 
time manifested depended on the character of 
the reigning elector, whether he was tolerant or 
not, and to what church he adhered. Thus, 
along in the seventeenth century, one elector 
belonged to the Reformed church, his successor 
to the Lutheran church, and the next one to the 
Catholic church, and each one of them believed 
in the common doctrine of his day that the religion 


HARDSHIPS LEFT AND ENCOUNTERED 15 


of the ruler should be that of his people, which he 
endeavored to enforce. 

Out of these conditions there quite naturally 
arose a desire that grew into a purpose on the part 
of many of these sufferers from ill fortune and 
oppression to seek in the New World the peace 
and the independence which had been denied to 
them in the fatherland, and which they yearned 
after for themselves as well as coveted for their 
children, with the opportunity in addition for 
the latter to better their material and social 
conditions. These aspirations and determination 
were in some instances created, and in others 
developed, by the various forms of advertising | 
done by Penn to secure good settlers for his 
province; by the activities of subordinate colon- 
izers, exploiters, and shipowners; by agents; 
by widely distributed pamphlets; by reports 
from one person to another; and by letters from 
relatives or friends who had already gone to 
Pennsylvania and were pleased therewith. 

Large numbers of the Palatines in particular 
were moved to seek this land of promise. In fact, 
so numerous were they that for many years all the 


16 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Germans who arrived at the port of Philadelphia 
were designated Palatines, as if they all came from 
the Palatinate. 

Many of the Germans, especially those who 
came in the earlier days to Pennsylvania, while 
they were in no sense wealthy, had sufficient 
money to pay their passage and have enough 
left with which to buy land for a farm and to get 
a fair start. But for the most of those who, in 
order to better their worldly condition, or to 
escape from oppression and persecution, wanted 
to come to America, it was a difficult thing to do. 
They did not have, as they could not under the 
circumstances have been expected to have, enough 
money for such an undertaking. Besides, various 
obstacles were placed in their way by those who 
wanted to keep them where they were to till the 
soil and to do other kinds of work, to pay the 
different forms of tribute and taxes, and to render 
military service. 

Once these difficulties were overcome, there 
remained the hardships of the journey, which were 
increased with the multiplication of the number 
of persons seeking to make it far beyond the 


HARDSHIPS LEFT AND ENCOUNTERED 17 


accommodations for it. The voyage across the 
Atlantic was generally very trying because it had 
to be made in comparatively small, slow-sailing 
ships, which were unconscionably over-crowded, 
and often inadequately provided with food and 
water; while many captains and avaricious ship- 
owners not only were indifferent to the comfort of 
their passengers but were disregardful of their lives. 

Pastorius declared that the ship in which he 
came could be likened to nothing but Noah’s 
Ark, on account of the differences in the ages, 
religions, occupations, and social standing of the 
passengers, as well as their division into clean 
(reasonably) and unclean. He described the fare 
as being very bad. Every ten persons received 
each week three pounds of butter; daily, four cans 
of beer and two cans of water; at noon, every 
day in the week, meat; and three days at noon, 
fish, which the passengers had to dress with their 
own butter; while every day they had to keep 
from their dinner enough for their supper. But 
the worst of it all was that both the meat and the 
fish were so salty and smelled so strong that 
they were not palatable. 


18 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Gottlieb Mittelberger, a church organist and 
schoolmaster, who came here in 1750 and returned 
to Germany four years later, said, in his Journey 
to Pennsylvania, that the journey from the 
Palatinate to Pennsylvania required fully half a 
year, amid such hardships as no one could ade- 
quately describe. One reason was that the trip 
down the Rhein from Heilbronn to Holland took 
from four to six weeks because there were thirty- 
six custom-houses to be passed, at all of which the 
boats (barges) had to be examined, which exami- 
nations were made when it suited the convenience 
of the officials to make them. In Holland there 
was a further detention of the people for five or 
six weeks. During these delays many persons had 
to spend nearly all the money and to consume the 
most of the provisions which they had taken 
with them. Both in Rotterdam and in Amster- 
dam, the usual seaports for re-embarkation, the 
passengers were packed densely in the ships, like 
herrings, it might be said, one person receiving a 
place scarcely 2 feet wide and 6 feet long for his 
bed. If the winds were contrary, it might 
require, instead of eight days or less, from two to 


HARDSHIPS LEFT AND ENCOUNTERED 109 


four weeks to go from Holland to Cowes, on the 
Isle of Wight, where the ship might be detained 
a week or two in order to complete her cargo. 
From there the voyage to Philadelphia might 
require from seven to twelve weeks. Not only 
was the stench on shipboard almost unbearable, 
but there were many kinds of sickness, with 
miserable deaths, owing partly to the old and 
sharply salted food, and partly to the foul, 
impure water furnished. There was suffering 
from hunger, thirst, heat, cold, dampness, and 
anxiety. 

Another very common, but almost tragic, 
hardship which many passengers experienced was 
in having their chests, into which they had put 
practically everything that they had to bring 
with them, broken into and plundered of a part 
or of all their contents, such as surplus clothing, 
linens, books, keepsakes, small utensils, and 
money. Other passengers suffered from having 
their chests sent on different ships from the ones 
on which they came, which at best caused them 
much inconvenience, while frequently the chests 
were never seen again by their owners, or only 


20 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


after they had been rifled of what was most 
valuable in them. 

Then there was a large class of Germans who 
must have suffered their full share in the father- 
land, and on the whole more than any other class 
in reaching Pennsylvania, but who had years of 
servitude yet to undergo before they could call 
themselves their own masters. They have gener- 
ally been called “redemptioners.” In one way 
or another, perhaps by selling their few belongings, 
they managed to reach a seaport, sometimes with 
their families, but had no money to go farther. 
In order to cross the ocean, they contracted with 
the shipmasters for credit for their passage until 
they reached Philadelphia, with the provision that 
if the amount was not then paid by them, anyone 
who wished to do so might pay it, and they would 
work for him long enough to repay him, which 
usually took from three to five years. This was 
an application of a method which had been used 
largely for English and Irish servants who con- 
tracted, in consideration among other things of 
recelving specified advances, generally including 
the prepayment of their passage, to go to America 


HARDSHIPS LEFT AND ENCOUNTERED 1 


to work for designated periods for the individuals 
who personally or through their agents were the 
other parties to those contracts. Both those 
servants and the redemptioners were by their 
contracts and officially termed “indentured serv- 


9) 


ants.”” Many, too, besides Germans came as 
redemptioners. 

Unfortunately, however, it was not long before 
a regular traffic in German redemptioners was 
being conducted, often with deception and shame- 
ful ill-treatment. Agents of shipowners and 
captains went through the country and by gross 
misrepresentations induced people to go as redemp- 
tioners. Sometimes persons were even enticed 
on to vessels to be taken as redemptioners. After 
that their treatment on shipboard was almost 
invariably without any regard for their comfort 
or well-being. Nor was any consideration given 
as to the kind of persons to whom they were 
finally disposed, while members of families were 
often separated. It has been said also that there 
were men, called ‘‘soul-drivers,” who, as it were, 
bought redemptioners in considerable numbers 
from captains of ships and took them through 


22 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


the country, reselling them to the farmers. Again, 
redemptioners were sometimes advertised for sale, 
as if they were chattels. 

But it was not all like that. For large numbers 
of persons, this system of giving credit for the 
passage with a chance to pay for it afterward in 
work furnished the only means by which they 
could ever reach America, and it was of un- 
mistakable advantage to them. Many of them 
got good masters and good homes, with a chance 
to get acquainted with their new environment 
and to prepare well for what they wanted subse- 
quently to do. 

An act passed in 1700 provided that every 
servant who should faithfully serve four years or 
more should at the expiration of his time have two | 
complete suits of clothes, one of which should 
be new, and that he should be furnished with a 
new ax, a grubbing hoe, and a weeding hoe. In 
some cases contracts were made that at the end 
of his service a man should receive a horse; or, 
at the end of her service, a woman should be given 
a cow, or a spinning wheel. Children who came 
as redemptioners must work until they became 


HARDSHIPS LEFT AND ENCOUNTERED 23 


of age, but with the provision sometimes made that 
they should be taught a trade, or so that they could 
read the German Bible, or to read English, or to 
read and write, and perhaps to cipher. 

In several instances a redemptioner was 
procured to render services as a schoolmaster, or 
even as a minister. Furthermore, as a class, the 
German redemptioners are to be credited with 
becoming good citizens. 

How the early German settlers as a class met 
the hardships or conditions which confronted them 
after they reached Pennsylvania—or what they 
then did and how they then lived—a brief review | 
will show accorded with their developed character 
and their fortitude under prior adverse circum- 
stances. 


CHAPTER III 
WITH THE PIONEERS 


The life of a pioneer is of necessity one of 
privation. Moreover, the hardships attending it 
are generally increased by the fact that the most 
of those who enter on it are persons of limited 
means who are for that reason unable to provide 
as many things for themselves as they might 
otherwise have for their comfort and to. aid 
them in their work. That was the case with the 
great majority of the early German settlers in 
Pennsylvania. But the narrow and almost com- 
 fortless life of toil which they had up to that time 
led prepared them in a manner for what was ahead 
of them when they set out with scant resources to 
make for themselves homes in the forests of a new 
country. Such peculiarities as their disposition to 
keep by themselves, their restricted ambitions, and 
their habits of industry and thrift also tended to 
fit them for the task before them, and to make of 
them afterward exceptionally good farmers; so 


24 





Types or Amish MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN OF LANCASTER 
COUNTY 





WITH THE PIONEERS 25 


that with singleness of purpose and unsparing of 
themselves they brought their land under cultiva- 
tion and thereafter labored to make it produce as 
much as possible. 

Various makeshifts for temporary shelter while 
they were getting their allotments of land and 
erecting huts thereon had to be resorted to by those 
who came in very early times. During the warm 
months some camped under large overhanging 
trees. Others made huts or shelters of poles and | 
the branches and leafage of trees. For several 
years after Philadelphia was laid out, what have 
often been called “caves,” although the most of 
them were more like huts, were dug or built 
either in the side or at the top of the moderately 
high and steep bank of the Delaware River, near 
the wharf where the ships were accustomed to 
land their passengers. Some of these shelters 
may have been little more than large holes dug 
into the bank, which led to their being called 
“caves.” But the most common form of con- 
struction appears to have been to make an excava- 
tion about 3 feet deep and of the desired length 
and width, and to build on the walls of that 


26 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


excavation extensions of those walls upward to 
the necessary height, using therefor either sods or 
earth and the branches and foliage of trees. The 
roof was made either of poles or of the branches 
of trees, on which were placed first bark or brush 
and then a layer of sod or earth. Chimneys 
were built of stones and a mixture of clay and grass, 
or of such mixture only. Some of these shelters 
served several tenants in succession, but some of 
them came to be put to uses which finally led to 
the issuance of an order that all must be vacated 
so that they might be demolished. 

Pastorius described a house that he built as 
being one-half under the earth, and one-half 
above it, with a window made of oiled paper. 
He said that the house was 30 feet long, and 15 
broad; but, when the people from Crefeld were 
lodging with him, it was capable of accommodating 
twenty persons. He said further that, besides 
building this house, he had—on the Delaware— 
dug a cellar 20 feet long, 12 wide, and 7 deep. 
Probably it was the house that was referred to 
when it was said that on October 25, 1683, there 
was a meeting in his “cave” for the purpose of 


WITH THE PIONEERS 27 


drawing lots for choices of location in Germantown, 
although what he called a cellar was more like 
a cave than was his house. 

After the division and assignment of land in 
Germantown those who desired to winter there had 
no time to lose in preparing for it. Something like 
the caves or sod houses along the Delaware were 
built from the materials at hand. That nothing 
better could be done was shown by the kind of 
house that Pastorius had to be content with in 
Philadelphia. But when he wrote his letter, in 
March, 1684, he exulted over the fact that forty- 
two people, distributed in twelve homes, were at 
that date living in Germantown. 

Then came log cabins. Many of these were 
small and hastily built to be used for a year or 
two only, or until larger and better log houses 
could be built that would be very comfortable and 
perhaps serve for a generation or more. The 
timber from which to build them was to be found 
on every farm and cost nothing beyond the labor 
of cutting down the trees and preparing from them 
the necessary logs and boards, whereas the trees 
had to be chopped down to clear the land. 


28 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


For the walls of the better houses the logs were 
hewed on at least three sides so that when laid 
one above another they would come close together 
and on the inside of the houses the walls, which 
were not plastered, would be fairly smooth. 
At the corners of the houses the ends of the logs 
_ were hewed and notched so that they fitted and 
held like dovetailing. The erection of the walls, 
after the logs had been prepared and brought 
where they were to be used, was generally done 
with the assistance of neighbors, in bees, or, as 
they were commonly called, “frolics.”” The inter- 
stices between the logs were stopped with clay. 
Roofs were constructed of poles and above them 
a thatch of grass, reeds, or, when it was to be had, 
straw. A little later, overlapped boards, and then 
rude shingles, were used, instead of thatching. 
At first the bare ground was sometimes utilized 
for floors, but floors were more often made of 
split or hewed logs, and afterward of boards. 
Chimneys were built of stones, the cracks between 
them being closed with clay, or with clay and grass 
mixed. The location of the chimney was usually 
against one end of a house, on the outside. Small 


WITH THE PIONEERS 29 


windows were made by cutting holes of the desired 
size through the walls, and, when necessary, 
covering these openings with oiled paper or oiled 
skins until window glass was obtained. Window- 
panes were small and were usually set in leaden 
frames. Doors consisted of two parts, an upper 
and a lower one, each with its own hinges and 
fastenings, which made it convenient to use the 
upper halves of the doors as large, open windows. 

The log house built by Heinrich Rosenberger, - 
which was used for almost eighty years, first 
by him and then by his son Heinrich, was a typical 
log house of the better kind in early days, in that 
it was a story-and-a-half in height, or had side 
walls a little more than one story high, and rising 
from them a steep roof, so that the attic, having 
windows in the gables, made a usable room. 
In some houses of that kind the first story was 
divided into two rooms; in other cases it was 
left allin one room. The attic was often reached 
by a ladder that was easily made and that occupied 
little space. In other houses there were stairs, 
which were in some instances made by hewing 
out steps across a log of large diameter that 


30 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


would be erected with the proper slant between 
the floors. 

When more room was wanted than a house of 
the foregoing description furnished, it was ordi- 
narily obtained by building against one side of the 
house a log addition with a roof connecting with 
the roof on that side of the house, but with the 
roof of the addition having much less slope than 
that of the house. The addition was generally 
used as a kitchen, or as a kitchen and dining-room 
combined. 

Almost every house had under it a cellar, 
which was little or nothing more than an excava- 
tion of the size desired. 

An open fireplace served for purposes of 
cooking, heating in cold weather, and to a great 
extent for lighting in the evening. It was built 
in a hole cut for it through the wall opposite the 
lower part of the chimney. Its bottom, sides, 
and top were constructed of flat stones, while its 
back was a part of the chimney. All cracks in 
it were filled with clay. 

As the people had no matches, they seldom 
intentionally permitted their fires to go out, but 


WITH THE PIONEERS 31 


covered them at night with ashes so that embers 
might be found in the morning with which to 
start them again. When fires accidentally went 
out, new ones had to be started by striking a 
piece of flint with a piece of steel in such a way 
as to make a spark that would ignite a bit of 
tinder; or gunpowder might be placed in the pan 
of the lock of a flint-lock musket and flashed 
against some tow. It was also a common practice, 
when there were neighbors near enough, to go 
with a small iron pot to the house of a neighbor 
to get a few live coals with which to start a fire. 
When other light than that furnished by the fire- 
place was wanted it was obtained from candles 
made by repeatedly dipping wicks in melted 
tallow, which led to the candles often being called 
“dips,” or “‘tallow dips.” 

The furnishings of a log house were at first 
few and simple. The furniture ordinarily con- 
sisted of a table, benches and stools for seats, 
possibly a corner cupboard, and a bedstead—all 
of them homemade. But if the house was one 
with an attic, the place for sleeping might be 
upstairs, in beds laid on the floor, each bed 


32 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


consisting of nothing more than two ticks filled 
with such material as was to be had, ranging from 
hay to feathers, according to circumstances, one 
tick being used to sleep on, and the other one, 
which was usually lighter, for covering. Wooden 
pegs, on which to hang clothing, were driven into 
the walls; and shelves, to hold the few books, 
dishes, and various other articles, were at con- 
venient places attached to the walls. Linens and 
things of that character were kept in the family 
chest, which was soon supplemented with some- 
thing like a plain dresser. The cooking utensils 
were few and primitive, such as could be used 
with an open fireplace, the main ones being two 
or three iron pots. Likewise, the tableware was 
limited to a few pewter dishes and wooden platters, 
and to some knives, forks, and spoons. 

Those who had the means with which to do it, 
could purchase, in Philadelphia or in some of 
the older settlements of the province, horses, 
oxen, cows, hogs, sheep, and poultry, derived from 
some which the Swedes or the English had brought 
in from New England or possibly from nearer 
colonies. But most of the German pioneers had 


WITH THE PIONEERS 33 


to be content to stock their farms gradually. 
Their first teams were generally of oxen; and not 
all got those immediately. 

But as soon as a man had a house in which he 
and his family could live, he must, whether he 
had a team or not, enter upon the arduous task 
of clearing his land for cultivation, especially 
enough of it to begin raising as soon as possible 
the grain, vegetables, and flax needed for food 
and clothing. All the tools that a man had to 
have to do this work were an ax and a grubbing 
hoe. He began by grubbing up the underbrush 
and the saplings, which were gathered into piles 
and when dry enough were burned. He then 
chopped down the trees and converted as much 
of their trunks as he desired into fence rails and 
firewood. All of the refuse and the tops of the 
trees that were simply cut down and no part 
of them used were subsequently burned. After 
the logs remaining on the ground were generally 
brought together, piled, and burned by a “‘logging 


” composed of neighbors who termed it a 


bee 
“frolic.” That is the way in which a German 


usually prepared his land for the plow. 


34 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Another method, which was generally followed 
by other settlers, was not to chop down any large 
trees, but to girdle them by cutting out around 
each one a band a few inches wide and as deep 
as the bark, or a little deeper, which would kill 
the trees. In a year or two the dead limbs 
would begin to fall, and eventually the trees, 
one by one. That saved some labor at first, but 
the branches that fell had to be collected from 
time to time, and burned; and so did the trees 
themselves, after a number of years. Besides, it 
left such unsightly fields that travelers remarked 
on the much better appearance of those cleared 
by the Germans. The looks of the fields where 
the trees were girdled and left standing were made 
worse, too, many times, by setting the trees afire, 
after they had become dry, and burning off their 
tops and the outside of their trunks. 

Breaking the land by the first plowing, after 
it was cleared, was a very difficult matter because 
the trees extended far in all directions and the 
roots of the smaller vegetation intertwined, 
forming a close, tough network hard to be torn 
apart by the wooden plows with which it had to 


WITH THE PIONEERS 35 


be done. If a man did not himself own a team 
with which to do this work, he had to hire one of 
some neighbor, and oxen were better for the work 
than were horses. Harrows with wooden teeth 
were used for pulverizing and smoothing plowed 
ground. 

Fields had to be fenced for the protection of 
crops because cattle and hogs were universally 
allowed to run at large. The fences built were 
what have come to be known either as “worm” 
fences or as “snake” fences on account of their 
zigzag form. ‘They were made of rails about 11 
feet, or sometimes less, in length, and triangular 
in their cross-sections, each of which measured 
approximately from 3 to 4 inches on the base of 
the triangle, and from 4 to 6 inches on its sides. 
These rails were laid so that those of one panel 
of a fence crossed those of the next panel a few 
inches from that end of each, one rail of the one 
panel being laid and then one of the other until 
the desired height of fence was attained, the two 
panels forming a very wide angle; while another 
wide angle, the reverse of that one, was formed 
by the second and third panels—and so on; the 


36 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


panels zigzagging back and forth, in order to 
keep the fence from falling over. The rails 
were split from logs by means of an ax and a 
homemade maul and wedges. 

When it came to sowing grain, that was done 
by hand. The cutting of grain, when it was 
ready for harvesting, was done with a sickle. 
Hay was mowed with a scythe. A whetstone to 
sharpen sickle or scythe was frequently carried 
in a holder made of an ox-horn. Rakes and pitch- 
forks were made entirely of wood. ‘Threshing 
was done with a flail, or by having the grain trod 
by a horse or an ox. 

An orchard, particularly of apple and of peach 
trees, was early planted on almost every farm. 
The apples raised were used for making apple 
butter, cider, and cider vinegar. Besides, both 
apples and peaches were cut into pieces—the 
apples after being pared—and dried in the sun, 
to be afterward used in various ways in cooking. 
The dried apples, as well as the pieces of apples 
before they were dried, were called “schnitz.”’ 

After the Germans once got live stock, they 
took good care of it. This meant the early 





WINTER SCENE ON CONESTOGA CREEK, SOUTH OF LANCASTER 





“SNAKE”? OR ‘‘WoRM’”’ FENCES 


ee es ae eb 
= ; es ‘ mn * ct + 
_ @* ~ wee 
a ai.¥6 a _— ‘ay 
7 to Aan Pie 
- ¥ 
a en ne, Pwr ve 
a , 
5 a as hs ren 
m va ae ie, 
, : my 
Pes 7 >» is «, 
s ae » Pa 
' 7 e+ [ < 


4s 4 ‘ ° \ 
7 eee & 
lg 2 . ‘ Br 
4. & : 7 
‘ 
i oh 
/ ' 7 
78 
‘ 
as é 
te " : 
T , 
‘z 
f 
« 
» 
‘ 
‘ 
“ 
ile 
puis 
2 
‘ 
4 
? 
“i 


LIBPARY 
OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS — 


: 
- 





. —_ 
a a ad 
?, 7 
Me » “yy hee a i 
s 
Peay 
- = 
n . 
7 eu ; 
ae i, A \ y 7’ 
‘ ; i. naer_«) is 
TOC tGck> ae Vai i 
: 4 a =i 4 4 hay P 
:7 tay a 4 


WITH THE PIONEERS 37 


building of stables, which were at first small and 
perhaps of a temporary character, but which in 
general had log walls and were covered with hay, 
straw, or cornstalks. Observant travelers were 
much impressed with the care that the Germans 
took of their horses and their cattle, while most 
other pioneers were wont to let theirs run in the 
woods or go without proper shelter and care in 
winter, in consequence of which, if their animals 
lived through the cold weather, they were in 
poor condition in the spring. 

For many years there were no roads that 
reached to the German settlements. Such travel- 
ing as it was necessary to do was done either on 
foot or on horseback, along winding trails or 
footpaths through the woods. On horseback also 
grain was taken in bags to mill, and produce, 
with sometimes a live sheep or a live calf, was 
taken in panniers to the Philadelphia market. 
Merchandise of any kind was brought home in the 
same manner. Much of the marketing, moreover, 
was done by the women, when the distance was 
not too great. For service on the farms, sleds 
were sometimes made; and then two-wheeled 


38 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


carts. The wheels of the carts were solid, thick, 
and often of very large diameter. They were 
made either of cross-sections of large logs, or of 
pieces of wood fastened together. The carts 
were generally drawn by yokes of oxen; and, as 
the carts could stand going anywhere that there 
was a possibility of getting through, they came 
to be considerably used for transportation off 
the farm, as well as used on it, and helped to 
broaden the footpaths through the country into 
roadways. v1) 

In general, the German farmers hired few 
helpers. ‘They preferred to do the most of their 
work themselves, with, the assistance of the 
members of their immediate families, which at 
certain seasons of the year included the aid in 
the fields of their wives and their daughters. Yet 
they did some exchanging of work with their 
neighbors; and, when they did hire either men 
or women for service,’ they. usually treated those 
hired the same as if they were regular inmates 
of their homes. 

The most of the clothing was homemade, of 
homemade cloth. Sometimes boots and shoes 


WITH THE PIONEERS 39 


were also homemade, but more often they were 
made by shoemakers who periodically went around 
to the houses to do the work, or to get the measure- 
ments for it. Both boots and shoes were coarse 
and heavy. However, men and women commonly 
went barefoot through the summer; and the 
children, a longer time. The men wore long 
trousers, vests, and coats or jackets, which were 
generally made of coarse cloth manufactured 
from tow and possibly dyed a brown with a 
preparation made from the bark of butternut 
trees. But trousers and jackets were frequently 
made of leather, or of buckskin. The women 
wore short gowns and petticoats. Kerchiefs, 
small shawls, or hoods were the usual coverings 
for their heads. Boys were dressed very much 
like their fathers; girls, like their mothers. 

The housewife generally made the garden and 
saw to the raising of a patch of flax. She also 
looked after the curing and the dressing of the 
flax; and, with the aid of her daughters, during 
the winter did the spinning, and perhaps the 
weaving, although the materials when ready for 
it were sometimes sent to professional weavers 


40 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


to be woven. The finer grades of linen were 
bleached on the grass, in the sun. From the tow 
or coarser part of the flax not only was cloth 
made, but also rope for various purposes, one of 
which was for use as part of the harness, or 
‘gear,’ for horses. After the raising of sheep was 
begun, the women had the wool to prepare for 
spinning, and then to spin. Considerable “linsey- 


” or coarse cloth of linen and wool, was 


woolsey, 
made, and much used for clothing. Other duties 
frequently apportioned to the women, besides: 
those of housekeeping, were the milking of the 
cows and the caring for the poultry, in addition 
to which they had the milk to take care of and 
butter and cheese to make. © 

On a bare table, frugal, but ample, meals 
were spread. Soup, bread of one kind or another, 
meat, and some vegetables were the main articles 
of diet at first for the pioneers. The meat might 
at times be some sort of wild game. In their 
seasons, there were also wild berries, some of which 
were made into preserves and jelly. Milk was 
used a great deal, but butter was to a large extent 
taken the place of by “smearcase”’ or cottage 


WITH THE PIONEERS 41 


cheese, by preserves and jelly, and by apple butter, 
when there were apples from which to make it. 
Little tea or coffee was used. What was called 
tea was generally made of herbs; and the coffee, 
of burnt rye, or of burnt wheat. For seats 
around the table either benches or stools were 
utilized. But, among even a very conservative 
people, in the course of time various changes were 
inevitable, some of which should be noted. 


CHAPTER IV 
GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 


The life of the Pennsylvania Germans, in 
general, subsequent to the days of the German 
pioneers was but a continuation with a gradual 
development or improvement in some respects of 
the life of the pioneers. Most of the pioneers 
were, after a few years, living better and getting 
more out of life than ever before, but with few 
noticeable changes in their manner of life. Nor 
were such changes made with any frequency by 
their descendants. 

With regard to improving their houses there 
was considerable done by the second, or, if not by 
that, then by the third, generation. The greater 
number of the pioneers were inclined as long as 
they lived to retain their homes in their log houses, 
when they had good ones. But those who after 
them became the owners of the farms began 
building large stone houses, and particularly in 
the early part of the nineteenth century were 


42 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 43 


houses of that kind built, a fairly large proportion 
of which are still in use, while the log houses 
have practically all disappeared. Many of the 
stone houses, however, on account of the roughness 
and unsightliness of the shale stones generally 
used in their construction, and the frequent de- 
velopment of interstices in the walls have been 
plastered over on the outside with ordinary plas- 
ter, cement, or a mixture of plaster and cement, 
and then perhaps painted white. 

A good example of one of those old stone 
farmhouses was the one which took the place of 
Heinrich Rosenberger’s log house. By whom 
that stone house was built, and when, was not 
left in doubt, because, following a custom among 
many of the Pennsylvania Germans, a date-stone 
or tablet—one that in this case read: ‘‘ Johannes 
M. Schwerdle, 1809’’—was placed near the apex 
of one of the gables of the house. This Schwerdle, 
while yet in his minority, came as a redemptioner, 
in September, 1772. Upon his arrival, his passage 
was paid by Heinrich Rosenberger (son of the 
pioneer), after which Schwerdle repaid the said 
Rosenberger with three years of service. Subse- 


44 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


quently Schwerdle married one of the daughters 
of that Heinrich Rosenberger, junior, and later 
acquired, through the will of his father-in-law 
and by purchase, the Rosenberger farm, on which 
he built that stone house. Moreover, a descendant 
of his—who spells his name “‘Swartley’”’—“ Henry 
Rosenberger Swartley,” is the present owner and 
occupant of the house and of a considerable part 
of the farm. 

The development in the building of houses, 
which was from small log ones to large stone or 
sometimes frame ones, was fully equaled by the 
advance from the building of small stables to 
large barns, or rather to combined stables and 
barns, the lower part being for the stabling of 
horses and cattle, and the upper part for the 
storage of grain and hay. Some of these barns 
were built with stone walls; others were frame 
structures entirely. But the most common form 
was to have stone walls for the stable or lower 
part, and all above that built of lumber, the upper 
or frame part extending from 5 to 8 feet beyond the 
stone wall on one side of the building so as to 
form a partial outside shelter for live stock, or 





STONE House BUILT IN 1809 ON WHAT HAD BEEN THE HEINRICH 
ROSENBERGER FARM 





THE RITTENHOUSE HOME NEAR GERMANTOWN 


Built of stone in 1707, and later covered with plaster 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 45 


sometimes for vehicles. The frame portion of 
many of the barns was painted white, on the out- 
side; but, of others, red; or, sometimes, yellow. 

Of some significance also was the change which 
was made in the building of fences. This came 
when people had their land for the most part 
cleared and under cultivation. It showed both 
a growing scarcity of timber from which to make 
rails and an increasing realization that the old 
worm fences, of which only a very few specimens 
or remnants are now to be seen, occupied an 
unnecessary breadth of ground and furnished too 
many corners in which weeds could grow, as well 
as soon became displeasing to the eye. 

The new form of fence which was adopted, 
and which may yet be seen almost everywhere, 
except where it has been superseded by wire 
fencing, was constructed of posts and rails. The 
posts were about 7 or 8 inches wide and 2 or 3 
inches thick. Lengthwise through their broader 
surfaces they had mortises cut that were from 2 
to 3 inches wide and from 5 to 7 inches long—at 
such places as it was desired to have the rails. 
Then the posts were firmly set in the ground at 


46 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


intervals of about a foot less than the length of 
the rails; and the rails, hewed at their ends so 
that the ends of two rails could be inserted into a 
mortise, were inserted, one rail from each side, 
into every mortise. That made a straight and 
more durable fence, of good appearance. 

The roads over which the Pennsylvania- 
German farmer had to travel when he went 
anywhere remained, with a few exceptions, very 
poor during the most of the eighteenth century. 
Especially were they rough, and at some seasons 
of the year exceedingly miry in places. Sometimes 
a boggy spot was improved by constructing over 
it a corduroy roadbed, which was done by laying 
first one log across the road and then another 
beside it, continuing the operation for whatever 
distance was deemed necessary. A great ad- 
vance in road-making had its inception in the 
incorporation in 1792 of a company that con- 
structed a turnpike or macadamized toll-road that 
was completed in 1794 between Philadelphia and 
Lancaster. After that a large number of hard- 
surfaced toll-roads of varying lengths were built, 
and a few short ones still exist. 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 47 


A considerable backwardness was also long 
shown in the matter of building bridges. A log 
was occasionally placed across a small stream, to 
be used as a bridge by pedestrians, but for many 
years any other crossing of small streams had to 
be done by fording them. Over large streams 
ferries were in the course of time established here 
and there. The building of substantial bridges 
was not begun until near the close of the eighteenth 
century. As late as 1795 it was said that three 
bridges across the Schuylkill River in the vicinity 
of Philadelphia were floating ones that were 
built of logs chained together and kept in place 
by anchors and by fastenings to the two shores. 

When the farmers got wagons, these were 
usually covered ones—that is, they had canvas 
covers stretched over arches made of hoop-poles 
or bent strips of wood which were attached at 
their ends to the sides of the wagon boxes. Some 
of them were what were called Conestoga wagons, 
which name was perhaps in some way derived 
from such wagons, of heavy build, being used for 
transportation purposes between Philadelphia 
and Lancaster, or between Philadelphia and 


48 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Pittsburgh, through Lancaster; or from such 
wagons having been made either first or princi- 
pally at Lancaster, adjacent to the Conestoga 
Creek. The Conestoga wagons were usually drawn 
by from four to eight horses. ‘The bottom of the 
wagon box was made concave, or with the center 
a few inches lower than the ends, so that in going 
up and down the numerous hills the load would 
tend to accumulate in the center instead of sliding 
from one end of the wagon to the other. Like 
these wagons in the main were the “prairie 
schooners” of a later day; and somewhat of a 
reminder of them in appearance, especially in 
the expanding shape of their boxes, are the 
lighter, two-horse wagons, without any covers, 
now largely used on the farms. Another form 
of wagon that came to be used a great deal by the 
Pennsylvania Germans was a light one with 
either a canvas or an oilcloth cover or top. It was 
called a market wagon, and it is still in use, but 
it is gradually being displaced by automobiles. 
Markets where farm produce might regularly 
be sold, and more general annual or semiannual 
markets or fairs, were established very early in 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 49 


Philadelphia and in Germantown; and in other 
important centers, when these were formed. 
Markets of the first kind in particular were favored 
by the Pennsylvania Germans, and on their 
account largely are still maintained in many 
places. In Lancaster, for example, there are 
markets at certain hours on four days of the week, 
in three different buildings and along the curb, 
on one side of two streets, for about four blocks. 
The city owns the central market-house, and from 
the sale or lease of the right to use the stalls in it 
and of the right to use the curb for stands for 
market purposes during the market hours for 
the year of 1923 derived a revenue of about thirty- 
eight thousand dollars. The majority of those 
who conduct the markets are farmers, but in the | 
market-house especially there are stalls maintained 
by butchers, bakers, and other tradesmen. 
Almost anything ordinarily wanted in meats, 
vegetables, fruits, various kinds of cheese, and 
pastry may be bought there. Along the curb 
some of the most noticeable articles offered for 
sale are vegetables, sauerkraut, boiled beets, 
potato chips, apples, Florida oranges and grape- 


5° THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


fruit, beef, fish, sausage, “pudding” made of 
boiled and seasoned scraps of pork together with 
liver and sometimes with beef, “‘scrapple” or 
cornmeal mush made with the juice left after 
making pudding, dressed chickens, eggs, occasion- 
ally live fowls, cottage and ‘‘Dutch” cheese, 
apple butter and preserves, honey, pies, doughnuts, 
and cakes. Flowers are also sold, sometimes 
artificial ones. Pretzels are so much in demand 
that they are continuously exposed to the dust 
and for sale, at a penny apiece, at a number of 
stands on the main business streets. 

Going to market, either to Philadelphia or 
elsewhere, meant more to the farmers in early 
days than merely disposing of their produce. 
It gave them new incentives to improve things, 
and an opportunity to purchase much that was 
needed for doing it. Thus, furniture made by 
cabinet-makers or in factories came to be substi- 
tuted, one article after another, for that which was 
roughly homemade, especially was this true of 
bedsteads, dressers, and tables, as well as of 
chairs to take the place of benches and stools. 
Earthenware, china, and glassware were also 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 51 


purchased at different times; likewise, articles of 
clothing, and cloth, until finally no more homespun 
was made. 

The Pennsylvania Germans began to use stoves 
as soon as they could get them, and their houses 
were distinguishable in many instances by having 
their chimneys built through the center of the 
roof, and not at one end of the house as was 
customary for a fireplace. Later, chimneys were 
commonly built, on the inside of the walls, at 
the two ends of a house. In 1684 Pastorius 
asked that an iron stove be sent to him from 
Germany, but it was many years after that before 
stoves can be said to have come into use. 

The first stoves were each made of five iron 
plates—one plate for the bottom, one for the top, 
one for each side, and one for the front, while 
the back of the stove was made by the chimney, 
or by an old fireplace, into which a few inches of 
the stove were tightly fitted. There was no open- 
ing in any of the plates. Wood, for fuel, was put 
in from the back, through a sort of door in the 
chimney or fireplace. Next, came the six-plate 
stove, the sixth plate being used for the back of 


52 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


the stove, thus permitting the stove to stand away 
from the chimney. This stove had a door in 
the front plate for the insertion of fuel. After 
that, the ten-plate stove was invented, the 
additional four plates being used in the construc- 
tion of an oven in the stove. Stoves of five or 
six plates were usually nearly square, or possibly 
measured about 21 inches in height, 18 inches in 
width, and 24 inches in length, while ten-plate 
stoves were somewhat longer. The plates were 
generally made of cast iron and had raised orna- 
mental or allegorical designs on what were to be 
their outer sides. About the middle of the 
eighteenth century cannon or upright cylindrical 
heating-stoves made their appearance, and were 
first used principally in large rooms frequented 
by the public, and in churches. All burned wood. 

Baking was for a long while done in ovens, 
which were often of considerable size, and were 
generally constructed of stones and mortar at a 
little distance from the farmhouses, and at times 
in connection with smokehouses, which were 
used in smoking and curing meat. A great many 
stories have been told about what, and how much, 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 53 


was baked in these ovens, but their use was dis- 
continued after the introduction, in the nineteenth 
century, of cook-stoves and kitchen ranges, and 
eventually practically all the ovens were torn 
down. Now the baking of bread at home has 
been almost abandoned, baker’s bread being 
instead bought from wagons or automobiles sent 
through the country every week day to supply it. 

Where there were springs or brooks, spring- 
houses were built in which to keep the milk, 
cream, butter, and sometimes other articles of 
food. These houses—ordinarily with about the 
capacity of a small room, although sometimes 
smaller or larger than that—were usually built 
with stone walls, which, in the course of time, 
were in many instances plastered or cemented over 
on the outside, and painted white. But the 
importance and use of springhouses have been 
greatly diminished, in fact, in many instances 
their use for any purpose has been discontinued, 
or at times they have been converted into chicken 
coops, owing to the present general practice of 
sending either to the creameries or to the milk- 
dealers in the cities nearly all the milk produced 


54 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


on the farms, while the butter needed is being 
more and more purchased, instead of being 
churned at home; as is also at times purchased— 
from the creameries—even skimmed milk, when 
that is wanted for feed for the hogs. 

Carpets did not begin to find their way into 
the Pennsylvania-German farmhouses until late 
in the eighteenth century, or the beginning of the 
nineteenth. In Philadelphia and perhaps in the 
homes of some country people where conditions 
favored it, before carpets came into use, clean 
white sand was sprinkled on the floors and deftly 
spread with a broom so as to form spirals and other 
simple, pleasing patterns. But the Pennsylvania- 
German housewives on farms had no time for 
doing that sort of thing. Besides, their ideal of a 
floor was one scoured scrupulously clean. How- 
ever, carpets and rugs, both homemade ones and 
such as are sold in the stores, are now to be found 
in abundance in most of the farmhouses. 

Candles continued long to be the main depend- 
ence for artificial lighting, but were to some extent 
gradually replaced with lamps of a primitive kind, 
in which lard was generally burned. ‘The lamps 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 55 


were of many different patterns, although they 
were alike in principle. Some of them were made 
of iron, a common form of these being that of a 
small, shallow covered, round or oval-shaped ves- 
sel, with a handle at the side, or bent upward and 
with an opening or groove for the insertion through 
it of a wick. But more of the lamps were made 
of tin. These were of various sizes and shapes, 
some of them looking much like covered tin cups, 
and others like miniature teapots or oil cans of 
larger circumference at the base than at the top. 
All had handles, and most of them had a spout, 
on the side opposite the handle, for the wick to 
pass through, but some had a spout or several 
spouts or tubes extending upward from the top, 
each one to hold a wick. Not one of these lamps 
had achimney. All of them were smoky, emitted 
disagreeable odors, and gave but a comparatively 
poor light. After them, in the second half of the 
nineteenth century, came kerosene oil lamps 
with glass chimneys. 

The lanterns for a very long time were usually 
round ones made of tin perforated with either 
small round or longish thin holes arranged in 


56 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


concentric circles and other ways, through which 
the light from a tallow candle could shine only | 
dimly. Another style of tallow-candle lantern that 
came to be used more or less was square in its 
basal form, and had bottom, top, removable back, 
and corners from top to bottom made of tin, 
while the front and two sides were of glass. 

Near the middle of the eighteenth century 
apple mills and cider presses commenced to be 
used. Prior to that time cider was ordinarily 
made by mashing apples in a strong cask, tub, 
or trough by stamping them with a knot or the 
equivalent of wood at the end of a long handle, 
after which the pulpy mass was put into a kind 
of open-work basket that was hung to the limb of a 
tree, while a vessel of some sort was set under the 
basket to catch the juice, which was pressed out by 
heavy stones placed on top of the mashed apples. — 

A form of apple mill or grinder that came to be 
used, instead of the pounding or stamping to 
reduce the apples to a pulp, consisted of two solid 
cylinders about 15 inches in diameter and 20 
inches in length, cut from the trunk of a tree 
and set upright, side by side, in a stout wooden 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 57 


frame, one of the cylinders extending upward 
as a shaft to which was attached a moderately 
long, strong pole or sweep, to which a horse 
would be hitched to operate the mill by going 
round and round it. A hopper received the apples 
and fed them to the cylinders, one of which had 
notches into which the other had cogs or projec- 
tions to fit. 

Much more ponderous were the cider presses 
that were employed to press the cider out of the 
apple pulp. They varied somewhat in form and 
size, but each press had its heavy beam, which 
was sometimes as much as 25 feet long and 18 
inches or more square. In some of the presses 
this beam was at one of its ends pivoted 3 or 4 
feet above the ground in a huge post set in a strong 
foundation, and in the middle and at the other 
end upheld by some kind of a support. The 
apple pulp to be pressed was put into a frame of 
from 3 to 4 feet square placed on a tight bottom 
of boards or planks directly under the beam near 
its pivoted end, layers of straw or of cloth being 
placed between layers of the pulp. Then a 
movable board cover, closely fitted to the inside 


58 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


of the frame and having a block of wood on it so 
arranged that the pressure of the weight of the 
beam would be applied to it and press it down, 
was put on top of the pulp, and the weight of 
the beam let down upon it. Very often the 
frame was made of a number of frames about 
3 or 4 inches deep placed on top of one another. 
An opening at the bottom of the frame allowed 
the cider, when it was pressed out, to run into a 
vessel set to receive it. To increase the pressure, 
heavy stones or blocks of wood were often put on 
the free end of beam. After it had been lowered, 
in using the press, the beam was raised again by 
means either of a lever on a high fulcrum or of a 
lengthy, vertical wooden screw about to inches in 
diameter, under the free end of the beam. When 
the beam was raised with a lever it was held at 
each new height either by wooden blocks put 
under it or by a strong iron pin inserted into a hole 
made for it in an upright standard. In order to 
preserve the press for many years it sometimes 
had a roof built over it. 

Cider, however, was not made altogether for 
use as a beverage. For many years it was very 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 59 


extensively made and used for making cider vin- 
egar for the Philadelphia market. Considerable 
cider was also used in making apple butter, the 
‘““schnitz”’ or pieces of apple being boiled in it. 

The daily fare changed somewhat from that 
of the pioneers but in the essentials remained 
much the same as theirs. Some of the more com- 
mon dishes of later times were bread and either 
scalded or cold milk; cornmeal mush and milk; 
soup made of potatoes, or with pieces of dough 
or noodles; pork with sauerkraut; pork and 
dumplings; sausage; liverwurst or pudding; souse 
or pickled pigs’ feet; scrapple; bread and apple 
butter, preserves or jelly, and smearcase or cottage 
cheese; apple fritters; dried-apple and other kinds 
of pies; cookies, and cakes of different sorts. 
Most of these are favorites yet, and constitute a 
great portion of the meals of today. Even church 
suppers and those given by Bible classes in Lan- 
caster during the winter are announced in the 
local newspapers most frequently as being sauer- 
kraut, baked-ham, or roast-pork suppers. 

At one time bread was often placed on the 
table in pieces a quarter of a loaf in size, from which 


60 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


each person cut as much ashe wanted. Something 
like that is still to be seen in the somewhat common 
practice of putting uncut pies on the table, for 
each person to cut and remove with his own knife 
a piece of such size as he may desire. If pies of 
several kinds are thus served it does not necessarily 
mean that it is expected a piece of each will be 
taken. Neither is it always intended that a 
person shall partake of all the preserves and jellies, 
but rather that he may have his choice, when 
there are several kinds on the table. The common 
practice has generally been for each person, even 
if he be a guest, to reach for, and help himself to, 
whatever he wishes that is on the table. In 
order to facilitate the doing of this, when the 
table is a long one, duplicate dishes of some foods 
are sometimes placed at the ends of the table. 
Nor has it always been thought necessary to 
furnish spoons with the dishes from which are 
to be taken helpings of such articles as apple 
butter, preserves, smearcase, sugar, and molasses, 
it being considered entirely proper for each person 
to use his own spoon, or knife, in helping himself 
from any of these dishes. 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 61 


In his Travels, Isaac Weld, junior, who referred 
to Philadelphia as being the largest city in the 
Union, and to Lancaster—which then had about 
nine hundred houses, most of which were built 
either of brick or of stone—as being the largest 
inland town in North America, described the 
taverns in 1796 as being in general very indifferent 
ones, mainly kept by farmers, and conducted 
nearly the same everywhere. He said that on 
their arrival travelers were shown into a room 
common to everyone, which room was used also 
as a dining-room. At night the travelers must 
often submit to being crammed into rooms where 
there was scarcely sufficient space to walk between 
the beds. If a traveler could procure a few eggs 
with a little bacon, he ought to be satisfied, as it 
was twenty to one that a bit of fresh meat, or 
any salted meat except pork, could not be had. 
Vegetables also appeared to be very scarce. Ifa 
person got any, it was generally either turnips, 
or turnip tops boiled as greens. 

Other chroniclers have stated that along 
highways used by wagoners, when all transporta- 
tion was done by wagon, it was a common practice 


62 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


for the wagoners to carry their own bedding, 
of the simplest kind, which at night they laid 
on the floors in the barrooms of the taverns at 
which they stayed. Farmers frequently did the 
same thing, in Philadelphia, when they went 
there to market. But taverns patronized largely 
by wagoners were often found by travelers to be 
particularly unpleasant places at which to lodge. 

Nor would a traveler fare much better than 
at an ordinary tavern, if he stayed overnight at 
some farmhouses. ‘This is shown by a description 
of table customs and home life—the outgrowth of 
poverty and many adverse circumstances—given 
by Francis Baily, president of the Royal Astronom- 
ical Society, as one of his experiences in October, 
1790, in what is now Franklin County. He said 
that about 13 miles from Chambersburg he and 
a companion came at nightfall to a place which 
they had mistakenly understood was a tavern, 
which was “‘kept by some Dutchmen,” who very 
reluctantly consented to letting them stay over- 
night. Supper was eaten with the family of 
seven or eight persons. The table, which had no 
cloth on it, was placed in the middle of the room, 





THE OLDEST BUILDING IN THE CITY OF LANCASTER 
The “Plough” Tavern, built about 1748 





A Row or OLp-StyLE BUILDINGS IN LANCASTER 
The sixth building from the left was the ‘‘Cat’’ Tavern, built about 1760 


rh 





GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 63 


and was lighted by a blazing fire in the fireplace 
at one end. The meal began with warmed 
sour milk that was placed on the table in a large 
bowl, from which it was eaten by all dipping 
their spoons in it. After that, a dish of stewed 
pork, accompanied with hot pickled cabbage or hot 
slaw, was served and devoured in a similar manner 
to that in which the milk had been, or else with 
two or three persons eating off one plate. Then 
a large bowl of cold milk and bread was set on 
the table and partaken of in the same way as 
was the first dish, using the spoons just taken out 
of the greasy pork-dish. After supper the travelers 
were ushered up a ladder into a place where a small 
hole in the wall served as a window, and where 
there were four or five beds, each of which con- 
sisted of nothing more than one feather bed 
placed on another. The candle with which they 
were shown to their bed was immediately taken 
away. In the morning, the travelers, who, 
having been tired, slept soundly, discovered that 
they had passed the night in company with the 
whole family, the members of which had occupied 
the other beds. 


64 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Of course, not everybody even in the earliest 
days and in the smallest log cabins ate their 
meals after that fashion, or had things as dirty 
as it was further said those people had them. 
Nevertheless, among Christopher Dock’s One 
Hundred Necessary Rules of Conduct for Children, 
which was published about 1764, there were 
admonitions that one should avoid everything 
having the appearance of ravenous hunger, such 
as to be the first in the dish; that one should stay 
at his own place in the dish; and that he should 
not put back into the dish what he had once had 
on his plate. Other injunctions were not to wipe 
the plate either with the finger, or with the tongue; 
and that greasy fingers should be wiped with a 
cloth, not licked. A fork should be used as much 
as possible, instead of the fingers; and with the 
point of one’s knife, instead of with his fingers, 
should salt be taken from the salt-box. Bones 
and other scraps should neither be thrown under 
the table nor put under the table cloth, but left 
on the edge of the plate; and pieces of bread 
should not be put into the pocket, but left on the 
table. 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 65 


Men and women toiled hard, from early in the 
morning until late in the evening. There was, 
as a rule, no compulsion on either side other than 
that of circumstances. Nor was there any inclina- 
tion to shirk; but both men and the women 
undertook to do all they could; and apparently, 
as a Class, neither especially suffered ill from it. 

Life had its satisfaction for them in their having 
their own farms, and in their working for them- 
selves, as also in their seeing their property 
increase in value, and in seeing their children 
grow up about as they would have them. 

There were also diversions. For the men there 
was at times hunting; and for the boys, fishing. 
The men, moreover, derived considerable pleasure 
from the frolics or bees in which they helped one 
another, as in harvesting and in husking corn, 
when they combined with their work the exchang- 
ing of gossip, feasting and drinking, and making 
merry generally. Something like frolics, too, were 
the popular and frequently held vendues or public 
sales, which, shorn of some of their earlier side- 
attractions, are still common in some localities, 
particularly in Lancaster County, when people 


66 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


for various reasons want to sell live stock, farm 
equipment, or household goods. 

The bees for paring and cutting apples into 
pieces called “‘schnitz,” either to be dried or to 
be made into apple butter, might be participated 
in by both men and women; and, like huskings, 
were frequently for the young people not only 
occasions of social enjoyment but also of love- 
making. 

From the time that rag carpets and quilts 
began to be used the women had bees for sewing 
carpet rags, and bees for quilting, which were as 
much social events as they were utilitarian affairs. 

Furthermore, informal visiting between rela- 
tives and between friends living in the same 
neighborhood has always been popular, and has — 
been practiced a great deal—possibly more than 
ever, and over a wider range of territory, since 
automobiles have come into general use. Besides, 
every year has had its holidays, and perhaps 
festive occasions, such as weddings, which have 
been whole-heartedly enjoyed. 

Nor must it be forgotten that for many if not 
for most men of earlier times the numerous 


GENERAL LIFE AND CHANGES 67 


taverns that were established in the villages and 
along the main highways furnished places of good 
cheer, much like clubs, in which to congregate 
and discuss weather, crops, politics, and general 
affairs of the neighborhood. As a whole, the 
earlier Pennsylvania Germans were far from 
practicing total abstinence, although according 
to various reports they were much more temperate 
in the use of intoxicants than were some of their 
contemporaries of other lineage. 

Children were generally reared under strict 
discipline, and were early taught to work, yet 
had their play and games. So also did the young 
people—who, like their parents, worked hard— 
have, particularly in winter, their sports, parties, 
and games. Dancing was popular with those who 
did not have religious scruples against it. 

Courtships were usually begun as soon as 
what was regarded as a marriageable age was 
reached, and were conducted with vigor—occasion- 
ally either in a boorish or in what would now be 
deemed an improper manner. But the marriage 
of all young folks was looked forward to as a 
matter of course. Mothers often started their 


68 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


daughters at early ages toward filling “hope 
chests,” or each making a chestful of quilts, 
household linens, and garments for use after 
marriage. Of the marriages that followed, appar- 
ently as large a proportion were satisfactory and 
happy as could possibly have been the case under 
any circumstances. 

When a married woman speaks of her husband, 
she almost invariably calls him, in accordance 
with a widely prevalent custom, “the mister.” 
She will say, for example: ‘‘The mister is in the 
field.”’ Similarly, the husband commonly refers 
to his wife as “the missus.” 

The subjects of religion and education as 
pertaining to the Pennsylvania Germans will be 
considered together, and next. 


CHAPTER V 
RELIGION AND EDUCATION 


Religion and education were closely related 
in the thoughts of the Pennsylvania Germans, 
and for their children the two were long promoted 
together, either under one roof or in adjacent 
buildings. The general opinion was that the 
work of education should be left to the church, 
to be either conducted or supervised by the latter, 
for the spiritual as well as the intellectual benefit 
of the children. 

The great majority of the German settlers 
were Lutherans, members of the Reformed church, 
and Mennonites. Most of the others were German 
Baptist Brethren or Dunkers, Moravians, and 
Schwenkfelders, with smaller numbers of some 
other persuasions. Many of these people were 
possessed of strong religious convictions which 
dominated their lives, while the general character 
of all may be said to have been religious. Yet 
there were in the aggregate a considerable number 

69 


70 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


of persons who apparently left their religion, or 
at least their connection with the church, behind 
them, for, when they found themselves in an 
environment free from ecclesiastical control, they 
not only failed to ally themselves with any 
religious body but neglected to attend any form 
of public worship. Still others, or their descend- 
ants, becoming dissatisfied with all the old religious 
organizations, formed or joined new ones. 

Thus did different religious conditions prevail, 
often in close proximity to one another, and give 
rise to some apparently contradictory conclusions. 
For instance, from some statements which have 
been made a person might infer that all the German 
settlers were very devout; that every company 
of them brought with them their pastor; and that 
houses of worship were built without much delay 
and in sufficient numbers to meet all needs 
therefor. On the other hand, it would appear, 
from some contemporaneous accounts, that there 
were many persons who were utterly indifferent 
to religious matters; that various bodies of church 
members were long without pastors; that some- 
times when the services of the only preachers 


{ 


Aucustus LUTHERAN CHURCH AT TRAPPE 





The oldest Lutheran church in America, built of stone in 1743, and after- 
ward covered with plaster 





LUTHERAN CHURCH 


Built of stone in 1767, at New Hanover 





RELIGION AND EDUCATION 71 


who could be had were accepted they proved to 
be such that it was resolved by the congregations 
that thereafter no one should be allowed to preach 
in their pulpits without first presenting satisfactory 
credentials; and that many young people grew 
up without having any religious instruction. 

At first, meetings of one form or another for 
worship were held in private houses. Then, 
here and there a small log meeting-house was 
built. Some of the early meeting-houses had 
for a while only the bare ground for their floors; 
others had floors built of stones, or, when procur- 
able, occasionally of brick. In a few instances, 
a flat stump or a cross-section of a log served for 
a pulpit, and partially hewed logs for seats. The 
windows were small and glazed with small panes 
of plain glass. No provision was made until 
quite a late date for warming the meeting- 
houses in winter, and few foot-stoves were used, 
as most of the women were as hardy as the men. 

Until well along in the eighteenth century, 
practically everybody who went to church either 
went on foot, or, when the distance was too great 
for that, they rode on horseback. After the 


a2 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


two-wheeled carts came into use a family might 
occasionally be seen riding to church, seated on 
bundles of straw in a cart drawn by oxen. In the 
summer those who walked to church often did it 
barefooted, carrying their shoes in their hands 
until they were near the meeting-house, when they 
would stop to put on their shoes, and after church 
might stop again at the same place to take off 
their shoes for the walk home. 

Funerals were usually attended by almost 
everybody for miles around. Largely owing to 
that fact, refreshments were served. Sometimes 
one person with pieces of cake in a dish, and 
another person with some ardent drink, would 
wait on the people as they arrived at the house, 
and a full meal would be served there after the 
return from the cemetery; or the meal might be 
served at once, if the cemetery was very far away. 
So much was often made of these occasions that 
not a few persons planned years ahead to have 
such feasts at their funerals as might be deemed 
worthy of them and be remembered appreciatively 
by their surviving friends and neighbors. But 
the unseemly results which now and then followed 


RELIGION AND EDUCATION 73 


from inordinate drinking finally led the ministers 
to use their influence to have the serving of 
liquors in connection with funerals abolished. 

Schools generally came after the organization 
of churches, but sometimes first. Some of the 
early meeting-houses were used during the week 
for school purposes, though usually for a limited 
period only, after which separate log schoolhouses 
were built near the meeting-houses. This meant 
that for many years schools were not numerous 
and were not easily attended by more than a few 
pupils. 

Schoolmasters, too, were for a long time as 
scarce as were pastors; and some of the former 
proved as unfit in their sphere as did some of the 
latter in theirs. In some instances, pastors 
rendered service also as schoolmasters. Again, 
pastors sometimes had assistants who conducted 
the schools. In other cases, where there were 
schoolmasters and no pastors, the schoolmasters 
sometimes read sermons on Sunday, and, in so 
far as they could, looked after both the religious 
and the educational welfare of their communities. 
An exceptionally zealous schoolmaster occasionally 


74 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


undertook to conduct two or even three schools 
in rotation, so as to enable as many children and 
youths as possible to get the rudiments of an 
education. | 

Reverend Henry Melchior Miihlenberg, while 
serving as the pastor of three German Lutheran 
churches, wrote in his diary, in January, 1743, 
that, since ignorance among the youths was great, 
and good schoolmasters were rarely to be found, 
he had to take this matter also into his hands, 
his plan being to go to the three congregations, 
remaining in each successively one week. He 
said that it did not look very promising to see 
youths of from seventeen to twenty years of age 
appear with the “‘A-B-C book’’; yet he rejoiced 
in finding the desire to learn something. When 
some young men came to his school who wished 
to learn English, he felt that also afforded him an 
opportunity to do good; and he read with them 
the New Testament in English. Singing, he said, 
had entirely died out among the young people. 

In most of the earlier schools the instruction 
was given in German, and either the Bible or the 
New Testament was the principal textbook. 


RELIGION AND EDUCATION 76 


There were devotional exercises which consisted 
of the reading of passages of Scripture, of prayer, 
and of the singing of hymns. In addition to 
this, there was also more or less religious instruc- 
tion given. The general aim was to teach the 
pupils to read well enough to be able to read the 
Bible, to spell and to write passably, and to cipher 
to the limited extent that it might be expected 
to be needed for ordinary computations. That 
amount of education practically all parents 
wanted their children—at least their boys—to 
have, but not much more, while it was often 
thought that girls would get along just as well 
with less. This is explained largely by the fact 
that most parents wanted their sons to become 
farmers, and expected their daughters to become 
the wives of farmers and to do much as the girls’ 
mothers had done, whereas more education 
appeared to cause dissatisfaction with farm life. 
When, comparatively late, the establishment of 
public schools was being considered or undertaken, 
they were strongly objected to because they would 
not give the particular kind of education desired, 
or that which was in German, and religious. 


76 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


The private and parochial schools were sup- 
ported by parents paying, at a low rate, for each 
child they sent to school. But the meager 
compensation of the schoolmasters was sometimes 
augmented, like that of the pastors, by gifts. 

An interesting description of what may be 
considered to have been in various respects a 
model school in its day is contained in Christopher 
Dock’s School Management, which was written 
in 1750. Christopher Dock was a Mennonite, 
who, with others of that faith, settled near Skip- 
pack Creek in what is now Montgomery County. 
For ten years, commencing about 1718, he taught 
school there. Then he farmed most of the time 
for ten years, after which, owing to much solicita- 
tion, he returned to teaching, which he thenceforth 
continued for about thirty-two years, twelve 
years of the time in two schools, one in Skippack 
Township, and the other in Salford Township, 
giving three days a week to each, alternately. 

He was a man of kind heart and exemplary 
piety who loved children, even if some of those 
with whom he came into contact lacked in cleanli- 
ness, or, what was worse, were prone, as he said, 





THE OLDEST SCHOOLHOUSE IN GERMANTOWN 


A building erected by St. Michael’s Lutheran Church before 1740, and 
restored in 1915 





CLOISTER BUILDINGS AT EPHRATA 


Erected by the early German Seventh Day Baptists 





RELIGION AND EDUCATION 77 


to use bad words, to lie, and to steal. Except 
for such apparent partiality as may be required 
to protect children of good breeding and character 
from being spoiled by those ill-bred or depraved, 
it is the duty of the schoolmaster, he declared, 
to be impartial—to determine nothing by favorit- 
ism or appearance; and, if its conduct is good, or 
it is willing to be instructed, the poor child, for 
teaching which not a penny may be received, 
must be as dear to him as the child of the rich 
from whom a liberal reward may be expected. 
Christopher Dock believed, furthermore, in 
giving children rewards for merit. He said that 
when a child had learned its letters its father 
must give it a penny, and its mother must cook 
for it two eggs; while, when it began to read, 
if it had been industrious, he himself would give 
it a ticket on which was written: “industrious— 
one penny.” Sometimes he made with chalk an 
“OQ” on the hand of a child, to show that it had 
failed in nothing. At other times the reward 
was a carefully written token containing a maxim, 
or, more likely, a verse from the Bible; or else 
it was a simple, painted picture of a flower or of 


78 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


a bird, similar to pictures which were during a 
century or more given by Pennsylvania-German 
schoolmasters to their pupils. 

Severity he considered was to be used with 
caution and discrimination. <A timid child might 
be more injured than benefited if punished 
severely either with words or with the rod. In 
the same way, a stupid child might be harmed 
by blows, while a child accustomed to them at 
home would not be made right by them at school, 
but must be made better by some other means. 
However, obstinate children having no hesitation 
in doing wrong should be sharply punished with 
the rod and at the same time addressed with 
earnest exhortation from the Word of God, to 
see whether the heart could be reached. Another 
way in which some perverse pupils might be 
punished, as they were here at times, was to 
make them sit on what was called the punishment 
bench, and to compel them to wear yokes around 
their necks as an additional sign that they were 
being punished. 

New pupils were assigned to volunteers among 
the older ones, for assistance; and to make sure 


RELIGION AND EDUCATION 79 


that wrongdoers kept their promises of amendment 
they were sometimes required to get the bail or 
undertaking of other pupils to see that what 
they said they would do was done. 

When such of the pupils as lived near enough 
to the school to get there on time arrived in the 
morning, those of them who could read sat down, 
the boys on one bench, and the girls on another. 
They were then given a chapter in the New 
Testament to read. After all had come and they 
had been inspected to see whether they were 
washed and combed, a hymn or a psalm was sung, 
and all kneeling recited the Lord’s Prayer. Then 
some gave their attention to writing. Recitations 
of the little ones and others were heard. A 
chapter was given to the Testament scholars to 
learn; words were given to be spelled; and some- 
times a quotation was given to be learned by all. 
Those who read letters and news sat together; 
likewise, those who ciphered. When a lesson was 
assigned, the pupils studied it aloud, according to 
what was said to be the custom there, as well as 
in England; but when the time for recitation came 
a rap with the rod on the table or on a bench 


80 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


brought silence, and one after another repeated 
his lesson. After the children had eaten their 
dinners, in order to keep them from misusing 
the remainder of the intermission, one or two 
pupils would be designated to read, until school 
was called, from the Old Testament—something 
historical; or from Moses, the Prophets, Solomon, 
or Ecclesiastes. Everything was in German. 

When the master went from one of his schools 
to the other, he carried letters from pupils in 
the one school to those in the other, the contents 
of the letters being a short rhyme or a quotation 
from the Bible, something concerning the exercises 
in the school or about the motto for the week, and 
a question to be answered with a quotation from 
the Scriptures. 

No attempt was made to give instruction in 
any one form of catechism or faith, because 
children of different religious opinions and practice 
were received into the school. It was soughty 
however, to make all the pupils familiar with the 
New Testament, by having them search through 
it as a whole and examine the chapters, so that 
they might be prepared, as it was said, to collect 


RELIGION AND EDUCATION 81 


richly the beautiful and fragrant flowers in this 
Garden of Paradise. 

Now the elementary education of the children 
of Pennsylvania-German families is obtained 
almost entirely in the public schools, is in English, 
and is of the general character of that usually 
afforded by such schools. 

Possibly as good an example as any of a public 
school in a rural district at present is furnished 
by one located some miles east of Lancaster, 
while the pupils who attend it are of special interest 
on account of their peculiarity of dress, they 
being from families of the Old Order Amish, who 
are probably today the most conservative body 
of Pennsylvania Germans. ‘The schoolhouse is a 
modern red-brick one, with most of the windows 
on one side so that the lighting is practically over 
the left shoulders of the pupils. In the schoolroom 
there are modern factory-made, individual seats 
and desks for about forty-five pupils, whereas, 
in Christopher Dock’s schools, unpainted, long 
wooden benches, perhaps with sloping boards 
about 5 inches wide attached to their backs to 
form desks for those who sat behind them, were 


82 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


used. Again, in this school illustrative of condi- 
tions now, blackboards cover all the space on 
the walls available for them, while Christopher 
Dock used as a blackboard in teaching ciphering 
a small, narrow noteboard, with longitudinal lines 
on it, designed for use in teaching music. ‘Then, 
where he either drew with the pen or painted 
pictures of birds and flowers, which he gave to 
his pupils, here are to be seen, arranged along 
the top of the blackboard, outlines of birds, 
flowers, and other objects neatly cut out of colored 
paper, or painted with water colors, by the 
pupils. The great difference between the modern 
and the old-time school is also shown in the fact 
that where, in the latter, the master made and 
mended goose-quill pens for his pupils, now an 
efficient mechanical lead-pencil sharpener may 
be seen conveniently placed for the pupils to use 
it to sharpen their lead pencils, and do it better 
than it could otherwise be done, while quill pens 
have long been superseded by steel ones. Further- 
more, on the walls of this public school there are 
pictures of Washington and Lincoln, several small 
American flags and mottoes such as: “Smile,” 


RELIGION AND EDUCATION 83 


“Be . Polite,’ “Be Honest,’ “Be Truthful.” 
In the windows there are some potted plants. 
During the fall and winter a few large ears of 
corn are displayed. 

A recent teacher of the school was a young 
woman who wore the white head-covering of one 
of the plain sects. Most likely she was a Mennon- 
ite. She opened the school at half-past eight in 
the morning by reading a psalm; the recital of 
the Lord’s Prayer, all standing; and leading 
the singing by all of a gospel hymn, such, for 
example, as “ Beulah Land.” 

In their general character, the pupils appeared 
to be about the same as those attending other 
schools in adjacent country districts, although 
perhaps a little more reserved in the presence of 
strangers, and a little less inclined to apply them- 
selves to some of the subjects in the course of 
study, such as hygiene and language. 

The boys, sitting on one side of the room, all 
had their jackets off, and some of them had their 
vests open. Like their fathers, they had hooks 
and eyes, instead of buttons, on their jackets and 
vests, but buttons were conspicuous on some of 


84 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


their flannel shirts, for which latter a plain, bright 
blue appeared to be a favorite color. Like their 
fathers again, they wore their hair just a little 
long all around, banged in front, and without 
any shingling or thinning down toward the edge. 
Some parted their hair in the middle, while others 
simply combed it out straight. But that some 
of them had a pride in the way their hair looked 
was shown by one youth taking from his pocket a 
comb and borrowing from another lad a small 
mirror, with the aid of which he very carefully 
smoothed and arranged his thick locks. The 
hats worn were black, with moderately broad, 
straight brims, and low, flat crowns, practically 
like the hats worn by their fathers, except smaller. 
Furthermore, all wore long trousers, the color of 
which, like that of their jackets and vests, was 
generally a dark gray, a dull intermixture of black 
and white, or with small black and white stripes. 

Just as the boys of all ages were dressed like 
their fathers, so were the girls in the school 
dressed like their mothers. ‘The dresses of the 
girls were all plain and fairly long, with long 
sleeves and ordinary, high necks. In color, about 


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RELIGION AND EDUCATION 85 


half a dozen of the dresses were purple; others 
were black, blue, or brown. On some of them 
there were plenty of buttons for fastenings, but 
none had them for ornament alone. The nearest 
things to ornaments were black collars and wrist- 
bands on some of the purple dresses. Besides, the 
greater portions of the dresses were hidden under 
large black aprons that reached to the bottoms of 
the skirts. All the girls had their hair braided and 
fastened in tight coils to the backs of their heads. 
Two or three of the older girls, who had joined 
the church, wore white caps or Mennonite head- 
dresses. In going to and from the school, all wore 
bonnets, the most of which were plain black ones, 
although some of them were common sunbonnets. 

In the course of time, the Lutherans and several 
other denominations established schools and col- 
- leges that have developed into important institu- 
tions for the promotion of higher education. 

Of the Mennonites in southeastern Pennsyl- 
vania as a religious body and as a peculiarly 
interesting existent, comparatively little-changed 
class of Pennsylvania Germans, a somewhat 
detailed description seems warranted. 


CHAPTER VI 
THE MENNONITES 


The Mennonites may be regarded as in most 
respects typical Pennsylvania Germans, but with 
a somewhat interesting additional distinctiveness 
in their religious history and characteristics. 
Before they came to Pennsylvania not only had 
their lot been the hard one common to the masses 
of the German people but one frequently made 
harder by bitter persecution for their religious 
beliefs and consistent practice. Most of them 
came from the Palatinate, but some of them came 
from other parts of Germany, from Holland, and 
from Switzerland. They were called Mennonites 
because they belonged to congregations which 
either had been organized by Menno Simons or 
sought in the main to follow his interpretations 
of the Bible and his teachings based on them. 

Menno Simons was born in Friesland in 1492. 
He was educated for the priesthood in the Roman 
Catholic church and served therein for some 

86 


THE MENNONITES 87 


years, becoming quite popular. But from his 
study of the Scriptures he came to the conclusion 
that the baptism of infants was unwarranted, 
which led him in 1536 to renounce the Romish 
church and priesthood. Afterward he became the 
spiritual leader of a little band of people who 
believed as he did that the baptism of infants 
availed nothing, and that persons baptized in 
their infancy must be rebaptized on a profession 
of their faith, when old enough to make such 
profession. ‘Then he engaged in the organization 
of churches or congregations, where there were 
people who held views similar to his, or who 
accepted his views—in Friesland, in Holland, and 
in parts of Germany. He was not so much a 
founder of a new church or sect as he was a 
gatherer-together and unifier of persons whom he 
found here and there believing much as he did. 
Nor was he an immersionist, and the Mennonites 
generally have not been immersionists but prac- 
ticers of baptism by pouring. 

The doctrine perhaps second in general impor- 
tance maintained by Menno Simons was that 
followers of the teachings of Christ could not bear 


88 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


any sword but that of the Spirit, which has been 
one of the fundamental doctrines of the Mennon- 
ites through most of their history, being expressed 
in their doctrine of nonresistance or defenseless- 
ness, and practiced with firmness in an almost 
uniform refusal to bear arms or in any manner 
to participate in war. 

Several other doctrines based on their inter- 
pretations of passages of Scripture, and in general 
strongly maintained, should also be taken into 
account as having contributed toward giving to 
the Mennonites their special religious character. 
They must not take any oath—must ‘“‘swear not 
at all,’’ but let their ‘communication be Yea, yea; 
Nay, nay.” They should not hold any civil 
office, neither should they otherwise participate 
in temporal government; but they may pray for 
their government, pay their taxes to it, and be 
obedient to it in everything not contrary to the 
law of God. Refractory members of the church 
must be banned and be shunned or avoided 
afterward by all other members. A member of 
the church must not marry anyone not belonging 
to it. The biblical ordinances commanding the 


THE MENNONITES 89 


washing of feet and the saluting of the brethren 
with a kiss should be observed. The garb should 
be simple. All forms of ostentation and of 
worldly vanities and pleasures should be avoided. 

Some of these doctrines, steadfastly held by a 
determined people, frequently rendered the Men- 
nonites obnoxious both to the authorities of the 
state and to those of the church or churches 
favored by the state; and at times brought dire 
persecution. In consequence, at different periods 
many Mennonites fled from one country to 
another, as, for example, at one time seeking an 
asylum in Moravia; at another time, in Holland; 
and then, in the Palatinate. Very often, too, 
they had to hide in the mountains and to hold 
their meetings with the utmost secrecy. Along 
in the early part of the eighteenth century they 
began coming with some frequency to make 
their homes in Pennsylvania, where they were 
assured of religious liberty. They made perma- 
nent settlements in Germantown, in what are 
now Montgomery and Lancaster counties, and 
after that in some other places in the province. 
Moreover, some of the thirteen families from 


go THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Crefeld, in Germany, who arrived in the fall of 
1683 and helped to found Germantown, were 
Mennonites, although just how many of them 
were is a matter of dispute. 

In 1708, the Mennonites built at Germantown 
their first meeting-house in America. It was 
small, and was built of logs. In 1770 that meeting- 
house was replaced with a small stone one, which, 
with an addition built in the rear, in 1908, for 
Sunday-school purposes, is still in use, having 
been acquired by the division of the Mennonites 
known as the General Conference of the Mennon- 
ites of North America, and being maintained by 
the latter as a sort of mission. William Ritten- 
house, who in 1690 built near Germantown the 
first mill in America for the manufacture of paper, 
was the first minister of the Mennonite church at 
Germantown. 

The Mennonite church with the largest mem- 
bership at the present time is the one at Fran- 
conia, in Montgomery County. It has about 
seven hundred and twenty-five members. The 
church, or meeting, was organized, and a stone 
meeting-house was built, about 1730. Heinrich 





THE OLDEST MENNONITE CHURCH IN AMERICA 


The front part was built of stone in 1770, at Germantown 





ii 


f es. 4 $ * 3 a RS 






THE OLDEST BUILDING IN LANCASTER COUNTY 


A house built by Christian Herr in 1719—about 6 miles southeast of 
Lancaster. Meetings were held in it. 





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THE MENNONITES gI 


Rosenberger was one of the first members, and 
an important one. The cemetery which adjoins 
the present house of worship is on what was once 
a corner of his farm. Heinrich Funck, a man of 
considerable literary and general ability, was 
chosen for the first minister, and was afterward 
made a bishop. He was also one of the two men 
who were selected to supervise the production of 
an edition in German of The Martyrs’ Mirror. 

The Bloody Theatre, or Martyrs’ Mzurror, 
which was printed in the Dutch language about 
1660, was a voluminous compilation, made by 
Thielman J. Van Bracht, of accounts of Christians 
who had been opposed to infant baptism and to 
war and who for their convictions had suffered 
martyrdom, from the time of Christ up to 1660. 
When the war between England and France 
occurred and there was danger of its spread- 
ing to the colonies in America, some of the 
leaders of the Mennonites in Pennsylvania felt 
that the young men of their faith ought to 
have this book in the language that they could 
read it, in order to prepare them to maintain at 
any cost the observance of their fundamental 


Q2 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


doctrine that Christians should not engage in 
war. That led to measures being taken to have 
the book translated into German and some 
thirteen hundred copies of it printed. All the 
work of translation, of making the paper on which 
to print the book, and of printing and binding 
the book was done at the cloister of the German 
Seventh Day Baptists, at Ephrata, in Lancaster 
County. The undertaking was completed in 
1749, after a great part of three years of labor by 
fifteen men, and it constituted one of the few 
great achievements in book-publishing in America 
up to that date. 

As most of the Mennonites who came to 
Pennsylvania were farmers, they built their houses 
of worship at such places in their communities as 
they thought would best suit their convenience, 
which places were usually at some distance from 
the villages and very frequently in groves. After- 
ward, when considerable numbers of Mennon- 
ites had come to live around and in villages and 
towns, churches were often built in such centers. 
Those built in recent years are generally of red 
brick, with a seating capacity of from four to 


THE MENNONITES 93 


six hundred; but some of the churches have 
twice that capacity. The churches are invariably 
austerely plain, in Lancaster County being hardly 
distinguishable in outward appearance from some 
tobacco warehouses. In height, the churches 
are either one story, or one story above a basement. 
They have no steeples on them, and no church 
bells. 

On the inside of a typical Mennonite church 
the walls and ceiling are plastered and calcimined. 
There may be a simple wainscot, and plain matting 
either over the whole floor or in the aisles only. 
The windows are constructed—with panes of 
ordinary size—of plain glass, and are protected 
during the week by tight, outside wooden shutters 
made with panels and painted white. The pews 
are made of pine lumber; are generally varnished, 
though sometimes painted; and are without 
cushions. The lighting for evening meetings, 
when there are any, is with electricity, where 
that can be obtained, otherwise with kerosene-oil 
lamps. The heating is still frequently done with 
stoves, although in the newer buildings it is 
generally with furnaces in the basements. ‘There 


04 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


are usually separate entrances, and separate 
vestibules—for the men and for the women—not 
infrequently at both ends of the building. Some- 
times, however, there are entrances on one side 
or on both sides or at one end and on one side of 
the building. A porch at one end or on one side 
of the church is a common thing, as in the country 
is also a pump conveniently near, out of doors. 
On the walls of the vestibules and very often of 
the main room, even back of the pulpit, are clothes 
hooks on which to hang wraps—hooks on which 
the men hang their black hats and in winter 
their overcoats, in their vestibule or vestibules, or 
on their side of the church; and hooks on which 
the women hang their black bonnets and their 
shawls or cloaks, in their vestibule or vestibules, 
or on their side of the church. Overshoes and 
umbrellas are also left in those same places. 
Moreover, on the men’s side, in some of the older 
churches, long strips of board about 3 inches wide 
and having on both sides wooden pegs or iron 
pins or hooks about 12 inches apart are suspended 
from the ceiling over the middle of the rows of 
pews, crosswise of the pews and about 4 feet 


THE MENNONITES 95 


above them, or else by supports they are upheld 
over every other pew, lengthwise of the pews; 
and on those pegs or hooks the men commonly 
hang their hats, on account of the convenience. 

In the church, the men and the boys as a rule 
sit on one side of the center aisle, which in some 
cases is on the right-hand side of it; and, in others 
on the left-hand side; while the women and the 
girls occupy the other side, whichever that is. 
Young boys generally sit with their fathers, and 
young girls with their mothers. It is also notice- 
able that infants form a part of almost every 
congregation and attract little attention even 
when they are fretful or noisy. Sometimes their 
fathers hold them; or a father holds his little 
girl, as does one deacon while he sits in the 
pulpit. 

The pulpit platform, which is at one end of the 
room, is usually between two vestibules, and is 
from two to five steps high above the floor of the 
room, which is level. The pulpit desk may be 
either of only ordinary size, or of 10 feet or more 
in length. In any event, it is very plain, and 
generally painted white. Back of it are either 


96 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


several plain chairs, or, more frequently an 
ordinary pew that in some cases may have a 
cushion on it—the only cushion in the church. 
This seating is for the bishop, ministers, and 
deacons, although a bishop may be present only 
now and then. There is no provision for instru- 
“mental music of any kind, such music being 
excluded because the Mennonites hold that as a 
part of religious worship it has no scriptural 
grounds in the New Testament dispensation. 
Nor is there any choir, but congregational singing 
only. | 
Where there is a basement in the church 
building, a small room or two may be partitioned 
off in it to be used for the primary class or classes 
of the Sunday-school, and at other times as a 
place in which to hang wraps. The remainder of 
the basement is generally simply calcimined, 
but a part of it may nevertheless be furnished 
with plain tables and chairs to be used for the 
serving of luncheons or meals, or to be used by 
persons who bring their own lunches, when there 
are occasions for it, as when there are conferences 
or meetings of some kind in both the forenoon 





Loc MEETING-HOUSE 


Built by the Mennonites, at Landisville, about 1790 





CORNER OF INTERIOR OF AN OLD MENNONITE CHURCH IN MONTGOMERY 
CouUNTY 
Observe pews, pulpit, and clothes hooks on frame over pew near the stove 


LIBRARY 


OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


THE MENNONITES 07 


and the afternoon, or in the afternoon and the 
evening. 

When almost all who went to church did it 
with horses and buggies, extensive horse sheds 
were built of rough lumber to be used as shelters 
for the teams. ‘Those sheds, sometimes sufficient 
to hold nearly a hundred rigs, are in use yet, but 
it is mainly for automobiles, which the farmers 
are now generally using for going to church. 

Very few of the Mennonite churches have 
preaching services twice, or even once, every 
Sunday. Most of them have preaching once in 
every two weeks, but some of them have it only 
once in four weeks. However, in many of these 
cases the dates are so arranged that, especially 
by using automobiles, the members of one church 
can go to another, as many of them do, when 
there are no services in theirown church. Besides, 
in some instances two churches are maintained, 
with services on alternate Sundays, by one or- 
ganization and one minister or occasionally two 
ministers. Evening services were long opposed, 
but they are now held in some churches, and, 
like afternoon services, which are moderately 


98 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


common, they are sometimes maintained in 
alternation with morning services on the other 
Sundays that there are services. 

A church chooses one of its own members to 
be its minister, virtually for life. The usual 
procedure is, first, to have the members vote for, 
or name, the person or persons of their choice 
for the office. When two or more persons have 
thus been nominated, they are required to draw 
lots, following the example furnished by Acts 
1:15-26. For this purpose the same number of 
books—usually hymnbooks—as there are nominees 
are taken, and in one of the books there is concealed 
a slip of paper with some writing on it for identifica- 
tion, after which each nominee draws a book, and 
the one in whose book the slip of paper is found 
is the one selected to be the minister. Before the 
drawing takes place, the bishop for the district 
may sometimes, when it appears desirable, advise 
that some name or names be recalled. After a 
minister has been duly chosen, he is ordained by 
the bishop, in a service held therefor. Occasion- 
ally a large church may have two ministers, or 
possibly three, when they are thought to be needed 


THE MENNONITES 99 


for the work of the church and to render assistance 
to other churches. 

The ministers are not paid any salary, but 
continue by farming or through some kind of 
business to support themselves and their families, 
although when they give an unusual amount of 
their time and labor to some special cause, say, 
to conducting evangelistic services or to doing 
missionary work, they may, if they need it, be 
aided financially, as also if they fall into want. 
Some of them are men of considerable ability, 
natural oratorical power, general education, and 
doctrinal knowledge of the Scriptures, either in 
the English or in the German version. Neither 
collegiate nor theological education has been 
possessed to any extent by the ministry in south- 
eastern Pennsylvania; nor is either apparently 
yet generally wanted for their ministers by the 
churches as a whole, which appear to be well 
satisfied with plain men who endeavor to preach 
plain biblical doctrines in a plain manner. Occa- 
sionally a doctrinal sermon will begin with Adam 
and the fall of man, and refer to passages or events 
throughout both the Old and New Testaments. 


100 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Nor have there been many changes in doctrine, 
as is evidenced by the statement, in 7e Mennonite 
Year-Book and Directory, 1923 (published in Penn- 
sylvania), of “‘What Mennonites Believe,” accom- 
panied with scriptural references for every point. 
This shows that \today they believe, among other 
things, in the plenary and verbal inspiration of the 
Bible as the Word of God; that man was created 
pure, and by trangression fell; that there will be a 
bodily resurrection of the just and of the unjust; 
and that the final judgment will be followed by 
eternal rewards and punishments. It also shows 
that the Mennonites still believe, as they have 
practically always believed, that pouring is the 
scriptural mode of Christian baptism; that feet- 
washing as a religious ceremony should be observed 
literally; that Christian women should wear the de- 
votional head-covering, especially during worship; 
that the kiss of charity should be practiced among 
believers; that mixed marriages between believers 
and unbelievers are unscriptural; that marriages 
with divorced persons whose former companions 
are living constitute adultery; that it is un- 
scriptural for Christian people to follow worldly 


THE MENNONITES IOI 


fashions, engage in carnal warfare, swear oaths, 
hold membership in secret societies, or have their 
lives insured; and that obstinate sinners within 
the church should be expelled. | 

The Rules and Discipline of the Lancaster 
Conference, as revised and approved on March 
22-23, 1923, go more into detail, for practical 
application. They provide that only a bishop 
shall baptize, except, in case of sickness, when the 
services of a bishop cannot be procured, a minister 
may perform the ceremony. 

Before the communion (which is usually held 
in the spring and in the fall), the church shall be 
examined to learn if the members are at peace, 
at which time it is customary to have a sermon 
preached from the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, 
the requirements of which chapter must be 
complied with by members who have grievances 
against other members. Before the communion, 
too, a day of fasting and prayer should be observed. 
The time for the ceremonial washing of feet is 
immediately after the communion. 

» Concerning matrimony, the rules are that the 
nuptials shall be announced in church. Only a 


102 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


bishop shall solemnize the marriage of members, 
but a minister may officiate for others. Members 
who engage a minister of some other denomination 
in preference to their own to solemnize their 
marriage fall under censure. Wedding marches 
and flower girls are not allowed when members 
marry. If a member marries outside of the 
non-conforming churches, he is barred from the 
communion and the council of brethren until he 
acknowledges that he has trangressed the evangeli- 
cal discipline of the church; but he can be re- 
instated by a bishop. A member marrying a 
person who had been divorced forfeits his member- 
ship in the church as long as the former marital 
partner of such person lives. 

If members become proud and vain, they fall 
under censure. Flowers are not allowed to be 
placed on the remains of members, and it is 
advised that members do not permit flowers to 
be put on the remains of any persons of their 
families. 

With regard to worldly amusements, the rule 
laid down is that excursion parties, surprise 
parties, camping-out parties by unmarried mem- 


THE MENNONITES 103 


bers, entertainments, all public contests in games, 
attending circuses, movies, theaters, helping to 
arrange for or attending festivals, fairs, picnics, 
literary societies, buying and selling tickets of 
chance—these, as well as all other amusements of a 
similar character, are forbidden. 

Members are not allowed to belong to any 
secret society, to labor unions, to the Young 
Men’s Christian Association, to the Epworth 
League, or to the Christian Endeavor Society. 
They are also forbidden to have life or theft 
insurance. If any member sues at law he is put 
back from the council of brethren and the com- 
munion until he acknowledges that he has trans- 
gressed against the Gospel. This conference not 
only does not approve of members serving in any 
worldly office whatever, but it earnestly advises 
them to keep out of those offices. For members 
to serve as jurors in trials for murder is forbidden, 
but they are allowed to serve as jurors in other 
cases, although they are advised to avoid such 
service as much as possible. 

The conference recommends that Sunday- 
schools be held; however it does not approve of 


104 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Sunday-school libraries, unless brethren authorized 
by it would select a library free from fiction. 

The Lord’s day should be well observed. It 
should be made a day of devotion and worship. 
Church service and Sunday-school should be 
regularly attended. Feasting and pleasure-seek- 
ing should be strictly avoided. Both old and 
young should be taught how to keep the day holy, 
and should exercise themselves constantly to 
show reverence for God’s house and all that 
pertains to it. 

In choosing the ministry, which it is believed 
is ordained by votes and the casting of lots, the 
counsel of the church is to be taken, and, if favor- 
able, then votes shall be taken. The brethren 
who receive votes and have the qualifications of 
I Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:6-9 shall pass 
through the lot. The ministry shall not be 
salaried. 

It is a deacon’s duty to distribute to the poor 
members of the church; to read in the meeting 
the text or Scripture for the minister, when 
requested by him to do so; to read a portion of 
Scripture and pray with the congregation when 


THE MENNONITES 105 


no minister is present in the meeting; and, 
when enmity arises in the church, to look after 
it. But to the bishop belongs the duty, with the 
Word and the counsel of the church, to excom- 
municate the disobedient. | 

With these rules of the Lancaster Conference 
may be compared the following from the Rules 
and Discipline of the Franconia Conference of the 
Mennonite Church, as revised in November, 1921: 

Nothing new shall enter into the church unless 
it be confirmed by a two-thirds vote of the confer- 
ence. This conference feels the necessity of 
urging the leaders of the church to teach the new 
birth, separation from the world, nonresistance, 
and other essentials relative to the welfare of the 
church; and not to speculate on unfulfilled 
prophecy, as, for example, on the doctrine of the 
millennium. 

Members are admonished against forwardness, 
and to be subject to those who have the rule 
over them according to Hebrews 13:17. They 
are also admonished to wear the plain clothing— 
are required to submit themselves to the teachings 
of God’s Word according to I Timothy 2:8-9 


106 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


and I Peter 3:3-4. ‘The sisters shall not wear 
hats, fashionable clothing, gold for adornment. 
They shall wear the plain head-covering, and use 
the strings for tying; not for ornament. Parents 
are to dress their children as becometh their 
faith—not follow the world, for example, in the 
cutting of their hair, and in the wearing of jewelry. 

The brethren are not to get costly or stylish 
automobiles; nor to use automobiles for pleasure, 
knowing that they are one of the greatest sources 
of evil. Good judgment should be used in running 
them, lest ‘“‘we’’ become a reproach to the world.— 
Luke 16:15. 

Members are not allowed to attend fairs, 
excursions, picnics, surprise parties, moving- 
picture shows, political meetings, parks, exhibi- 
tions, horse races, baby shows, and the like. 
Neither are they allowed to convey people to 
places of amusement which they themselves are 
forbidden to attend. Nor are members allowed 
to belong to secret societies, labor unions, farmers’ 
unions, or temperance unions, besides which they 
are admonished to refrain from uniting and 
working with such associations as those of breeders, 


THE MENNONITES 107 


raisers of poultry, and producers of milk. The 
carrying of life insurance is also forbidden. 

Members are not to accept any public office. 
It is considered advisable to abstain from voting. 

Members shall not use the bankruptcy law. 
They shall not sell a mortgage unless all parties 
interested agree thereto. If a member makes an 
assignment, and his debts cannot all be paid, he 
is to seek the peace of the creditors, if possible, 
in the presence of another brother, before he can 
take steps to come back into the church. If a 
member sues to recover a debt, he is required to 
taken another member with him and to seek the 
peace of the debtor, if possible, before he can take 
steps to be reconciled to the church. 

The different congregations are admonished to 
hold funerals on other days than Sunday, if 
possible. Flowers and other decorations are to be 
omitted at all funerals held in the meeting-houses, 
and members are not to clothe their dead in black. 

This conference encourages instruction in 
singing. | 

A church belonging to the Franconia Confer- 
ence has posted at the entrance to the church 


108 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


cemetery a printed notice that “flowering and 
shrubbing plants or vines are not allowed to be 
placed on the graves or lots in this cemetery. 
By order of the trustees.”’ 
The Mennonite General Conferénce, which 
ANG was held in 1808, passed a resolution stating that 
the sin of worldliness whether it be made manifest 
in the wearing of fashionable clothing; light, 
frivolous talking; attending places of worldly 
amusements; building fashionable houses and 
furnishing them fashionably; or following a 
questionable business should be frequently pointed 
out and reproved from the pulpit.] 

A report of a committee of seven (on dress), 
that was adopted by the General Conference in 
1913, urged the brethren to wear the kind of 
clothing approved by the church, avoiding all 
things forbidden or testified against in the Scrip- 
tures; to hold aloof from worldly fashions as 
manifested in changing styles in the shape and 
texture of hats, collars, coats, and other articles 
of apparel; and to hold aloof especially from such 
things as are manifestly worn for bodily orna- 
mentation or because they are in style. For the 





MENNONITE CHURCHES 


No. 1, Franconia; 2, Line Lexington; 3, Worcester or Methacton; 
4, Millwood; 5, Mellinger’s; 6, Strasburg. Nos. 1 and 3 are in Mont- 
gomery County; No. 2 is in Bucks County; Nos. 4, 5, 6 are in Lancaster 
County. No. 4 is Amish Mennonite; 5 is a typical modern brick Men- 
nonite church; 6 is a stone church built in 1804. 


THE MENNONITES 109 


sisters the recommendations were made that they 
should be attired as ‘‘women professing godliness,” 
with hair combed modestly so that the devotional 
head-covering might be worn with decency and 
order; and that they should avoid all styles 
indicating immodesty, low-necked dresses, short 
sleeves, gay colors, fabrics insufficient to cover 
the body properly, hobble or slit skirts, and any 
form of bonnet that indicated that it was worn for 
display rather than for service. 

The local conference to which the churches in 
Franklin County belong has mentioned, as objec- 
tionable, creased hats; long, flashy-colored neck- 
ties; small bonnets, and small prayer head- 
coverings. 

But not all members of the church try to 
observe literally all the admonitions and restric- 
tions that are formulated; and some of these are 
either being slowly modified from time to time, or 
not rigidly enforced in one locality or another. A 
good illustration of a changing attitude is to be 
seen with reference to education. For example, 
the principal editorial in the Youth’s Christian 
Companion of August 19, 1923, a Mennonite 


110 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


publication in Pennsylvania, emphasizes the value 
of education, with the conclusion that: 

There are many reasons why, when it is at all possible, 
at least a high school education should be gotten. But, 
where there is the chance, by all means get a college 
education; but get it in an institution where the instructors 
are not of the type to undermine the Word of God. 


The deacons for the Mennonite churches are 
chosen and ordained in practically the same 
manner as the ministers are, and likewise for 
life. Most churches have one deacon each, but 
there are churches that have two deacons, while 
in some instances there is but one deacon for two 
churches, as where the churches are conducted 
conjointly. 

The bishop for a district is chosen in much 
the same manner as a minister is chosen, and for 
life. As a rule, he is chosen from the ministers 
of the district. His ordination is by a bishop 
from some other district. Bishops, ministers, and 
deacons do not dress in any particular respect 
different from other men in the church who 
endeavor to conform to what has been sanc- 
tioned and become customary. That calls for 


THE MENNONITES III 


black or nearly black suits, with vests and 
medium-length coats both cut high in the neck, 
the coats having standing military or clerical 
collars about three-quarters of an inch in height, 
but no buttons for show on the sleeves or on 
the back near the waist. White collars, fre- 
quently of celluloid, are attached to the shirts, 
commonly with the plainest of bone collar buttons, 
which are generally noticeable because the more 
conservative men do not wear neckties, although 
some others, especially of the younger generation, 
wear them, particularly in the form of small, 
plain black bows. The hats in general are of 
black felt, and just stiff enough to hold their 
shape, which is with flat, round-edged crowns of 
medium height, and with brims about 24 inches 
wide, sometimes turned up a little at the edge. 
Of straw hats almost any style of plain ones may 
be worn in the summer; and there Is an increasing 
tendency to wear coats and vests of the ordinary 
pattern. But a striking illustration of general 
indifference to conventionalities was recently 
furnished when, during a preaching service on a 
sultry Sunday afternoon, three of the occupants 


112 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


of the pulpit and many of the men in the congrega- 
tion took off their coats, and, not having on any 
vests, displayed a variety of colored negligee 
shirts and the general use of suspenders. Most 
of the men are smooth shaven. 

The garb of the women, like that of the men, 
is conspicuously plain and follows with remarkable 
closeness styles that have been long established. 
For their dresses, the women confine themselves 
mainly to plain goods and to simple colors, black 
predominating for the older women. But dresses 
of purple, blue, green, brown, gray, and of other 
colors are to be seen. The dresses are of plain 
cut and make, with high necks, long sleeves, and 
skirts of good length. Over their shoulders the 
women wear capes made of the same materials 
as their dresses, the capes coming to more or less 
of points at the waist, both in front and behind. 
Narrow ruching is sometimes worn in the necks 
of the dresses. But the most striking feature of 
all is the headdress. White caps made of lawn 
and commonly called devotional coverings or 
prayer head-coverings, which are believed to be 
required by I Corinthians 11:2-16, are worn by 


THE MENNONITES 113 


most of the women all through the week, but by 
some women only when they go to church. Over 
them bonnets are worn outdoors—perhaps com- 
mon sunbonnets around home, but black bonnets 
elsewhere. The women are especially admonished 
to avoid vain display in ornamentation, such as 
the wearing of jewelry and costly clothing and 
the ‘“‘fussing” of the hair. The wearing of gold 
rings is sometimes particularly inveighed against, 
whereas the wearing of gold-framed spectacles 
appears to be considered all right. 

The children are generally plainly and sensibly, 
but not distinctively, dressed. Yet little girls 
are sometimes seen, even in some of the churches, 
with their hair tied with large bows of wide, 
brightly colored ribbons. 

Musical instruments, such as pianos and organs, 
are now to be found in some homes. Daily 
devotional exercises are maintained in some 
families, as family worship, but more often each 
individual is left to hold such devotions in private 
as he may think best. Again, the heads of some 
families audibly ask blessings at the table, although 
it is a more common practice to have a silent 


II4 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


pause before the meal, or such a pause before the 
meal and a like pause after it, for each person 
for himself silently to ask a blessing and return 
thanks. 

What, with some variations, may be considered 
the present regular order of church services is the 
singing of a hymn; the reading of a portion of 
Scripture, sometimes with comments thereon; 
silent prayer, with all persons kneeling at the 
seats on which they have been sitting; the singing 
of another hymn; a sermon of possibly three- 
quarters of an hour in duration; a few words 
added, while remaining seated, by each of the 
other occupants of the pulpit than the preacher; 
prayer by the preacher, which he closes with the 
recital, by him alone, of the Lord’s Prayer—all 
kneeling during the prayer, the singing of a hymn, 
announcements, and the benediction. However, 
the announcements may come after the benedic- 
tion. ts 

When a church is filled, on one side with men 
and boys, and on the other side with women and 
girls, all plainly clothed and apparently attentive 
to the service, the women with their bonnets off 


THE MENNONITES IIs 


and their heads all alike covered with their fresh 
white caps, and the girls, who are not yet members 
of the church, with their hats removed, the 
devotional spirit seems to be intensified. 

There is no renting of pews, and there are no 
ushers. Nor are collections taken at every service, 
but only from time to time to cover church 
expenses, or for special purposes. However, 
there are nearly always boxes that have above 
them the words: ‘‘The Lord loveth a cheerful 
giver”; yet these boxes are apparently little used, 
except sometimes to receive such contributions 
as are requested. Still, at least one important 
church has commenced taking collections regularly, 
and using small envelopes for them. Another 
church asked its members to pay twenty-five 
cents for every thousand dollars that they con- 
sidered themselves worth financially, the amount 
so raised to be used for church maintenance for 
1923, and called for a like sum for the poor fund 
for the year. 

All services are now, as a general thing, in 
English, although a few churches may quite 
regularly have a part of their services in German, 


116 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


and occasionally a service entirely in German, 
it sometimes depending much on the language 
with which the preacher is the more familiar. 
The hymnal most frequently used is composed 
chiefly of selections from the common devotional 
hymns in English, with the addition, in a supple- 
ment at the back of the book, of a few old favorites 
in German. By the side of this hymnal, however, 
there may still be seen in some of the churches 
copies of Die kleine geistliche Harfe, which has 
gone through many editions, and long been used 
by the Mennonites. 

An example of a combined German and English 
service with a somewhat unusual feature for these 
times was furnished not long ago by a service 
that was begun by the congregation singing an 
English hymn, after which a German hymn was 
lined in the old way, that is, one line or sentence 
at a time was read from the pulpit and then imme- 
diately sung by the congregation. Following that, 
another German hymn was sung without lining. 
A chapter was read from the German Bible. 
The congregation knelt in silent prayer. An 
elderly minister (from another place) preached 


THE MENNONITES 117 


for about half an hour in German. A younger 
minister followed with a fifteen-minute sermon 
in English. Each of the other occupants of the 
pulpit added a few words, either in German or 
in English, remaining seated while doing so. 
Next there was a prayer, in German, and after 
it the singing of a hymn, in English. Then came 
the benediction, in English, and after it the 
announcements were made in German. ‘That was 
at Franconia, where the German language is still 
being used considerably in the meetings. 

The communion is celebrated after a sermon 
appropriate to the occasion has been preached, 
generally by the bishop. In some churches in 
Lancaster County the men in one pew after another 
rise and go to the place where the bishop has taken 
his stand in front of the pulpit, each man in passing 
before the bishop receiving from him a bit of 
bread broken from a long slice, after which the 
man returns to his pew. The women then go 
through the same procedure. Afterward the 
men, and, following them the women, receive 
the wine in a silver cup, as they pass again before 
the bishop. Through a portion of the service 


118 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


the bishop recounts the significance of this 
memorial and the command to observe it, and 
during the remainder of the service the congrega- 
tion sings appropriate hymns. In other churches 
the bishop passes the elements to the members, 
who remain in their seats, but who arise one by 
one to receive the bread and the wine. Participa- 
tion in the communion is, as a rule, restricted 
to the members of each individual congregation. 
On some Sunday preceding that of the com- 
munion there may be baptisms by the bishop, 
after a sermon usually somewhat doctrinal has 
been preached. Those who are to be baptized 
kneel in front of the pulpit, facing it; the men and 
the boys on one side, and the women and the girls 
on the other, even when there are married couples 
among them. The women and the girls wear 
the devotional head-coverings or white caps, 
which one of the women of the church removes, 
before the baptismal water is poured, and replaces 
after the deacon has poured a little water three 
times through, or between, the hands of the 
bishop while they are placed on the candidate’s 
head and while the bishop speaks the words of 


THE MENNONITES 119 


baptism. ‘The baptism is preceded by the bishop 
asking several test questions, and is followed with 
a prayer offered by him. The ceremony is con- 
cluded by his extending his hand to each one 
baptized and bidding him or her to arise to a 
newness of life; and when a man or a boy has 
risen, kissing him. The women and the girls 
are kissed by one or two women members of the 
church. 

All kissing that is done under the scriptural 
mandate is done between men and men, or 
between women and women, and never between 
men and women. Moreover, except between 
officials of the church, kissing does not appear 
to be practiced much at the present time among 
the men; and, when kissing is done, it is generally 
done by touching the lips to the cheek adjacent 
to the corner of the mouth. 

The washing of feet after the communion 
service is also solemnly and decorously performed. 
In some instances a number of small tubs with 
water in them are brought into the church and 
placed between the pulpit and the front row of 
pews, each tub between two chairs. Those who 


120 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


are to participate in the ceremony quietly slip 
off their shoes and stockings before leaving their 
pews, and then go forward in small numbers, 
the women to the tubs on their side of the church, 
and the men to those on their side, and seat 
themselves in the chairs so that there are two 
women at each tub on their side of the church, 
and two men at each tub on the men’s side. 
Then one member of each pair at a tub washes 
the feet of the other, and wipes them with a towel, 
after which the one thus ministered to reciprocates 
it with a similar service. When this has been 
done, they arise, kiss each other, and return to 
their pews, whence some may go to their vestibules 
to put on their shoes and stockings. As the 
seats at the tubs are vacated, other members go 
forward to occupy them, which is continued 
until all have had a chance to follow in this way 
the example and what is regarded as being an 
enduring command of the Master. However, 
this ordinance is not observed at the present time 
in all the churches. 

The Mennonites were somewhat slow about 
starting Sunday-schools; but now almost every 


THE MENNONITES ren 


church has a good Sunday-school, with a com- 
paratively large attendance of all ages from the 
very young to the quite old. They are conducted 
in English, but some of them have classes in 
German for adults. They do not have festivals, 
picnics, excursions, rally days, nor anything of 
that sort. The schools are often held every 
Sunday, even when preaching services are not. 
Some churches have also young people’s meetings, 
and occasionally conferences for the study of 
the Bible. Besides, considerable interest is being 
taken in missionary work at home and abroad, 
and in the establishment and maintenance of 
benevolent institutions. 

While the church polity has always been 
strongly congregational, there has at the same 
time been a general disposition to conform to 
the decisions of the proper conferences, and the 
regular conferences now maintained furnish 
agencies through which the churches may co- 
operate in conducting missionary and charitable 
enterprises, as well as foster denominational 
institutions for higher education and provide 
publishing houses for the production of needed 


Loe THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


literature—things for which there is a growing 
appreciation. However, the inherent spirit of 
religious independence and congregationalism go 
far toward explaining why, notwithstanding that 
the Mennonites are naturally conservative and 
have maintained their fundamental doctrines 
with comparatively few changes, there have still 
sometimes been differences in views and practices 
in different localities, and why there have been 
some schisms. 

The first great schism was brought about by 
Jacob Ammann, or Amen, who, in Switzerland 
near the close of the seventeenth century, urged 
the enforcement, through rigid discipline, of a 
stricter observance of the ban and avoidance, and 
of the washing of feet, than was commonly being 
practiced. Adherents to his views are called 
“Amish.” Some of them began settling in 
Lancaster County in the second decade of the 
eighteenth century. They are now popularly 
divided into two classes; one of which is called 
the ‘“‘Old Order Amish”’; and the other, ‘‘ Amish 
Mennonites,” or ‘‘Progressive Amish.” Some- 
times the Old Order Amish are called ‘‘House 





FARM BUILDINGS OF AN AMISH MENNONITE IN LANCASTER 
CouUNTY 





N OLp SPRINGHOUSE IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY 








THE MENNONITES 123 


Amish,” because they do not build churches, but 
have their preaching services, which are still 
either in German or in Pennsylvania German, first 
in the house of one member, and then in that of 
another, a dinner for all being furnished by the 
family at whose house the meeting is held. The 
Amish Mennonites, on the other hand, build 
churches, and have Sunday-schools (which the 
Old Order Amish do not have), and are occasion- 
ally designated ‘‘Church Amish.” Their church 
services are largely in English, but sometimes 
wholly, or partly, in German. 

As a class, the Amish confine themselves to 
farming, and are very successful therein. The 
Old Order Amish are particularly conservative—in 
their dress; in the furnishing of their houses, 
which is very plain, without carpets and without 
curtains; and in adopting new things which might 
show too much of a worldly spirit, such as auto- 
mobiles and having telephones in their houses. 
‘The men wear a sort of jacket, rather than a coat, 
and because they have hooks and eyes, instead of 
buttons, to fasten their jackets and their vests, 
they are at times referred to as ‘‘hook-and-eye 


124 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


people,’ or as “hookers.” Buttons, however, 
may frequently be seen on their shirts, sweaters, 
and overcoats, which last are generally made with 
capes. Another peculiarity of the men is that, 
while they shave their upper lips, or shave around 
their mouths and sometimes a considerable portion 
of their cheeks, yet, for the purpose of conforming 
to Leviticus 19:27, 21:5, they wear either short 
or medium-length beards and what is known as 
blocked, instead of shingled, hair. The Amish 
women dress much like other Mennonite women, 
except that the Amish women generally wear 
black shoulder-capes, whatever may be the color 
of their dresses, and also generally wear large 
black aprons. 

Among the Progressive Amish, some of the 
men wear beards and garb of the same style as 
the Old Order Amish, while others are smooth 
shaven and wear the common style of clothes. 
Many of them, too, have automobiles and tele- 
phones. The women dress about as Mennonite 
women generally do, while the girls of all ages 
wear white caps or head-coverings in Sunday- 
school and church. 


THE MENNONITES 125 


Much like the early Amish in regarding the 
Mennonites generally as not strict enough in the 
maintenance of some of their articles of faith, 
and perhaps today more strict in enforcing the 
observance of those articles than are the Old 
Order Amish, are the Reformed Mennonites, who 
were organized in Lancaster County in 1821, and 
are sometimes called “‘ Herrites,”’ or, at other times, 
‘““New Mennonites.”’ 

Other schisms have for various reasons occurred 
at one time or another, as, for instance, because 
there were men who wanted to pursue a more 
progressive policy of some form or other than the 
rest would permit, or because there were some 
Mennonites who had come to believe that baptism 
should be by immersion. 

In order to distinguish from all others those 
who are properly called simply Mennonites, the 
latter are now frequently termed “Old Mennon- 
ites.’ Their number at the present time in 
the United States and Canada is given as 36,667, 
whereas the total number in the United States 
of what are classed as Mennonite bodies is placed 
at 91,603. 


126 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


From the subjects of both religion and educa- 
tion the attention may be profitably turned to a 
consideration of the nature of the proverbs and 
superstition of the Pennsylvania Germans, as 
being somewhat indicative of the frame of mind 
and credulity of past generations especially. 


CHAPTER VII 
PROVERBS AND SUPERSTITIONS 


Proverbs have been defined as being old and 
common sayings. ‘These are not all embodiments 
of universal truths and wisdom, but are often 
only expressions of general opinions, and fre- 
quently of general superstitious beliefs. They 
have their origin in keen observations, in common 
experiences, and in erroneous deductions, which 
are finally crystallized into pithy phrasing. In all 
their forms they are worthy of study as somewhat 
illustrative of the mental development and the 
dominant principles of the people making or 
using them. 

Many of the proverbs of the Pennsylvania 
Germans, both of those fundamentally true and 
of those expressive of superstitions, were brought 
from the fatherland, and vary somewhat in differ- 
ent localities, due to the fact that these were 
settled by people from different places. Some of 
the proverbs were originally in German, while 


127 


128 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


others were in one dialect or another, but nearly 
all of them were finally given a Pennsylvania- 
German wording. A few of them were rather 
coarse. 

One proverb particularly characteristic of the 
people may be translated: ‘‘Don’t hurry; work 
steadily.” Another describes idleness as the 
devil’s resting-place. A third says: “ Work faith- 
fully; laziness is worse than a pestilence.”” ‘There 
are other proverbs just as graphic and equally 
practical: 


‘Morning hours hold gold. 
The man who feeds his cows well churns much butter. 
Earning and saving together produce the surest wealth. 
A diligent housewife is the best savings-box. 
“One gets nothing without some trouble. 
The middle course is the best way. 
As one makes; so has he. 
If one can get over the dog, he can get over the tail. 
Who will not hear, must feel. 
A rough block requires a rough wedge. 
Size alone is not enough, else a cow could catch a 
rabbit. 
He who would support himself by hunting and fishing 
must wear torn clothes. 
“Too little or too much spoils all enjoyment. 


PROVERBS AND SUPERSTITIONS 129 


When the mice are glutted, the meal is bitter. 

A person should-stretch himself according to his cover. 

He who does not come in time must take what is left. 

Everyone must carry his own hides to the tanner. 

What one does not keep in his head, he must make 
up for with his feet. 

He who digs a pit for another will himself fall into it. 

One must live, and let live. 

It is better to do a little than to do nothing. 

Where there is smoke there is also fire. 

When a dog is hit, it yelps. 

A blind hog sometimes finds an acorn. 

A man who can build a good fire will make a good 
husband. 

A woman who cuts thick slices of bread will make a 
good stepmother. 

Who halts not, wins. 


But such proverbs as the foregoing are greatly 
exceeded in number by those which express 
beliefs savoring of superstition. The latter cover 
a wide range of subjects, touching human life 
and its activities at many points, from birth to 
death. Some examples will sufficiently indicate 
the scope and character of all. 


A child born on Sunday will develop pride. One born 
on the thirteenth of the month will have no luck. One 


130 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


born in the zodiacal sign of the Lion will grow up strong. 
One born in the sign of the Fishes will be a drinker, or 
always thirsty. 

For a person to step over a child that is lying down 
will retard its growth, as will also measuring the child. 

Whatever one dreams the first time that he sleeps/in a 
place will come true. 

Bubbles on a cup of coffee denote money. 


If the palm of the hand itches it will soon receive 
money. 


A person who wears round holes in the soles of his 
shoes will become rich, while one who wears holes in the 
seat of his trousers will be poor. 

If one gets out of bed backward things will go wrong 
for him all day. 

For one to forget what he was going to say is a sign 
that it was not true. 

When a person’s left ear burns it indicates that some- 
one is speaking ill of him, but when his right ear burns it 
signifies that someone is speaking well of him. 

When two persons are walking together, anyone who 
walks between them will take away their luck. 

For the cat to wash herself, or for the dog to roll on 
the floor is a sign that visitors will come. 

If one goes into a house, he should sit down, else he 
will take away its peace. 

Good luck is taken from a house when a stranger 
enters it by one door and leaves it by another. 


PROVERBS AND SUPERSTITIONS 1 


After a person has once started from a place it is 
unlucky for him to return to it on account of his having 
forgotten something. 

When the youngest in a family gets married those who 
are not married must either ride on the bake-oven or 
dance in a pig’s trough. To insure good luck, one who 
gets married must jump over a broomstick. 

In order to learn anything easily from a book, one 
should put the book under his pillow when he goes to bed. 

Picking up a pin, or falling uphill, either one brings 
good luck. 

To prevent a quarrel after salt has been spilled, some 
of the salt should be burned. 

A person should never make a present of a pin, of a 
knife, or of a pair of scissors; nor hand to another person 
anything of that sort with its point toward the person to 
whom handed, lest it injure or sever friendship. 


Some of these superstitious beliefs were not 
only at one time or another current everywhere 
among the Pennsylvania Germans, but are similar 
to old sayings of other people. On the other hand, 
some omens meant one thing to the Pennsylvania 
Germans in one locality, and either the opposite 
or a different thing to those of another community. 
Thus some people would say that to dream of a 
funeral portended a wedding, while it was more 


132 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


generally believed to be a sign of rain or of high 
water. Again, some declared that when a person’s 
nose itched it was a sign that he would receive a 
letter, whereas others insisted that it was a sign 
of an impending quarrel. By some people the 
finding of a five-leaved clover was believed to 
bring good luck, but by others it was regarded as 
the forerunner of bad luck. There was a similar 
contradiction as to the effect of meeting a black 
cat. At least half-a-dozen different ills, according 
to beliefs held in different localities, would befall 
anyone who, while he had it on, let a garment be 
in any way sewed or mended by another person, 
as that the latter would sew the wearer’s good 
luck away, would sew in the wearer’s thoughts, 
would sew on trouble, would sew in a pain with 
each stitch, or the wearer would acquire an 
enemy, or somebody would lie about him. Simi- 
larly, there were several different beliefs as to 
why the back of a man’s shirt should not be ironed, 
as that to iron it would make him lazy, or irritable, 
or would cause boils. 

In planning and in doing his work, the farmer 
took into account the phases of the moon and the 


PROVERBS AND SUPERSTITIONS 133 


signs of the zodiac as he found the latter in the 
almanac opposite the days of the month. He was 
also heedful of many things expressed in proverbs 
concerning the weather. He said that when 
wild geese fly high, the weather will be warm; 
when low, cold. When corn husks are thick, the 
following winter will be a hard one; but when the 
cor grows beyond the husks, the winter will be 
mild. A hot summer portends a cold winter. 
In proportion to the height at which the spiders 
build their webs in August will be the depth of 
snow the coming winter. A dry April and a wet 
May are favorable for a large crop of hay. When 
the horns of the moon point downward there will 
be rain. Likewise, when the sun draws water, 
that is, when the sun’s rays are visible in the 
clouds; when corns ache; when a cat or a dog 
eats grass; and when roosters sit on a fence—rain 
must be expected. If the sun sets under a cloud 
on Wednesday, rain will follow before Sunday. 
A ring around the moon betokens rain or snow. 
If chickens run for shelter when it commences to 
rain, the rain will not last long; but, if they run 
around in the rain, there will be more rain. 


134 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


It was also prevalently believed that everything 
planted in the Lion, or sign of Leo, would grow 
well. Flowers should be planted in the sign of the 
Virgin, or, as it was sometimes said, in the sign 
of the Posey Woman. Potatoes should be planted 
during the increase of the moon, and in the sign 
of the Lion. Climbers, such as beans and peas, 
should be planted when the horns of the moon 
pointed upward; and not when the moon was 
waning. Nothing should be sowed in the Water- 
man, or sign of Aquarius, or it would be watery. 
Fruit trees would bear better after being wished a 
‘““Happy New Year.’”’ Beets would be stringy if 
harvested under the wrong sign, and sauerkraut 
made at the wrong time would be bitter. 

Of course, people now do not have the faith 
in such things that was once manifested, neverthe- 
less there are yet many persons, particularly among 
the older folks, who believe in at least some of 
them. As an illustration of this fact, a reporter 
for a Lancaster paper found that in the northern 
part of the county most of the stores were closed 
on Ascension Thursday, 1923. The reason was 
apparently superstition, for, two days’ later, or 


PROVERBS AND SUPERSTITIONS 135 


on May 12, the paper said editorially that while 
the city pays little attention to the day, in a 
business way at least, the county abides by the 
older traditions. How many farmers would put 
up a fence post on that day? How many of 
their wives would take a needle in their hands to 
sew on a missing button? All of us still cherish 
some superstition. ‘The city man who is amused 
at his country cousin’s fear of lightning striking 
the fence post is usually the one who knocks on 
wood three times to ward off bad luck. Similarly, 
the woman who has no scruples about sewing on 
Ascension Day will, perhaps, after she has spilled 
salt, throw some over her left shoulder; or, she 
will insist on picking up every pin that she sees 
on the floor or on the sidewalk. 

For comparison with these old beliefs, especially 
with those of them which attribute to the moon 
great influence on the weather, on vegetation, 
and on living beings, and for such further light 
as it may throw on the subject under consideration, 
the gist of a portion of an article given prominence 
in a family almanac for 1923 published in Penn- 
sylvania may be noted. That article, after 


136 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


stating that Saturn was called the ruling planet 
for the year, said that generally the year under 
that planet was wet, cold, and disagreeable, 
although sometimes it might be very dry. Grass 
and vegetables were likely to start slow, and 
mature late. One need not be in any great 
haste with planting and sowing. Wheat, barley, 
and rye might yield good crops, but much de- 
pended on getting them cut and stored without 
their spoiling. The crop of hay might also be 
good, but it would be difficult to get it well cured. 
Fruit as a crop would be largely a failure, owing 
to the cold and inclement nature of the weather 
in the spring. Hops would be good, but not 
very plentiful. This would be a year for snakes 
and toads to multiply. Mice would be numerous, 
while worms would be fewer this year than in 
other years, as extreme cold weather destroys 
them. This year was also apt to produce much 
sickness toward the end of summer and during 
the fall—sickness taking numerous forms that 
are often dangerous, such as fever, diarrhea, 
bloody flux, catarrh, apoplexy, gout, and consump- 
tion. 


PROVERBS AND SUPERSTITIONS 137 


With reference to the treatment of diseases 
and personal injuries there were in the past 
numerous superstitions, some of which were 
very crude and occasionally involved the employ- 
ment of incantations. Goose oil was considered 
good for almost every ailment. Red beat leaves 
were accounted a specific for inflammation. 
Rheumatism was to be cured or warded off by 
carrying a horse chestnut in the pocket, by the 
wearing of an iron ring, or by tying a dried eelskin 
around the affected joint. For a sore throat the 
left stocking was to be wrapped around the neck. 
For nosebleed there were several remedies: to 
tie a red string around the neck; to tie a woolen 
string around the little finger; to tie an eelskin 
around the arm; to chew a piece of newspaper; 
to drop a key or a penny down the back; to pick 
up a stone, drop on it three drops of blood, and 
replace the stone just as it was, or for the person 
afflicted to recall who last sat next to him in church. 
For a toothache, one should pick the tooth with a 
splinter from a tree struck by lightning. Weak 
eyes should be washed with water from March 
snow. ‘To remove freckles, they should be washed 


138 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


with water from an old stump. Warts might be 
removed in a number of ways, one of which was 
to rub them with pieces of potato and bury the 
latter under the eaves of the house. If a person 
cut himself with an ax he should cover it with 
grease and put it under his bed. If he stepped 
on a nail he should dip it in fat and keep it in a 
dry place. Hair should be cut when the moon 
is increasing, but corns when it is decreasing. 

Following this, some side lights gathered from 
old records pertaining to a few individuals should 
be found not only of interest in themselves, but 
of value for what they show of more or less 
applicability to the Pennsylvania Germans in 
general, of approximately a century or a century 
and a half ago. 


CHAPTER VIII 


GLHANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS 


English has been the official language of 
Pennsylvania from the earliest provincial times. 
However, neither that fact nor the consequent one 
that the public records of Pennsylvania have 
always been kept in English could ever have been 
counted a serious disadvantage to the Pennsylva- 
nia Germans, even when they could not read or 
speak English. This was so because there were 
usually enough persons in the various public offices 
who understood and spoke Pennsylvania German 
to make it easy for people to transact business 
at those offices in that language. Besides, or- 
dinary laymen must always depend on persons 
technically familiar with public records to find in 
them what is wanted and to give to what is found 
its right interpretation. 

But what is of more general interest now about 
those old records is that some of them throw light 
otherwise unobtainable on the Pennsylvania 

139 


140 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Germans and their times. This is particularly © 
true of the records of wills and estates; and some 
of the records of the wills and of the estates of a 
few members of the Rosenberger family who lived 
in what are now Montgomery and Bucks counties 
perhaps may as profitably be considered here as 
any of the same dates. 

Heinrich Rosenberger apparently did not make 
any will, but, on January 19, 1745, for a stated 
consideration of £200, conveyed his farm of 159 
acres to his son Heinrich. The making of that 
conveyance is the last thing actually known about 
Heinrich Rosenberger, the pioneer, and it may 
fairly be presumed it was near the close of his 
life, although there have been some assumptions 
that he lived many years beyond 1745. ‘Those 
assumptions and some others concerning him may 
possibly be explained by a confusion of identity 
due to his son having the same name—Heinrich 
Rosenberger—and in time attracting some atten- 
tion as a Mennonite minister at Franconia. 

That Heinrich Rosenberger, senior, had any 
other child than his son Heinrich is not shown by 
any public record. Still it has been assumed that 


GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS 141 


he had four sons: Heinrich Rosenberger; Daniel 
Rosenberger, who in 1740 purchased land for a 
farm in Hatfield Township; John Rosenberger, 
who about 1749 or 1750 bought land in that 
township; and Benjamin Rosenberger, who in 
1739 settled in the township. Where these last 
three settled was about 6 miles southeast of 
Heinrich Rosenberger’s farm, in another town- 
ship. When or where any one of them was born 
is not now known. Nor is the name of any one 
of them to be found in the records kept of arrivals 
at the port of Philadelphia after 1727. That they 
may have been nephews of Heinrich Rosenberger, 
if they were not his sons, appears possible, as 
mere conjecture. That Daniel and John were 
brothers is the best attested point of relationship. 
All were Mennonites. 

Daniel Rosenberger must have been a thrifty 
farmer, for to the 159 acres of land which he pur- 
chased in 1740 he was able to add 200 acres in 
1769. He made his will on August 15, 1771, 
and died prior to September 23, 1771, since on 
the latter date the will was probated in the 
register’s office in Philadelphia, as what is now 


142 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Montgomery County was a part of Philadelphia 
County until in 1784. The will was written in 
German, although the wills of the Pennsylvania 
Germans were generally prepared by men who 
could understand directions given in Pennsylvania 
German and write from them wills in English. 
Because this will was in German, there was filed 
with it a translation in English, which, it was 
affirmed, was a true one “from the original 
Dutchyy 

The provisions which Daniel Rosenberger made 
in his will for his wife now appear quaint, but 
they were not of an exceptional character. He 
said, as it was translated: 


I give to my loving wife Fronica [perhaps originally 
‘Veronica,’ but spelled ‘“Fronica’’ because pronounced 
much like that], for her own, our bedding and bedstead, 
with what is belonging to it, her chest with all the linen 
cloth, our pewter ware, two pots, and one cow. Like- 
wise I give to my loving wife for her yearly maintenance, 
the new stove room, kitchen and cellar, what she has 
use for, firewood to the house, 8 bushels of rye, 5 bushels 
of wheat, 3 bushels of buckwheat, a fat hog of one hundred 
weight, apples as much as she useth, all which to be yearly 
during the time she remains my widow. [I also give tomy 


GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS 143 


loving wife two hundred pounds money for her main- 
tenance, to use as much as she hath need of, while she 
remains my widow, and the remainder to come to my 
heirs. 


Then, in order to make an equitable distribu- 
tion among his four children—David, Isaac, Ann, . 
and Mary—of the remainder of his estate, and 
to have his sons get the land, he made the provi- 
sions for his wife a charge against 200 acres of 
land on a part of which were the farm buildings, 
and devised that land to his son David, upon 
whom he specifically enjoined the duty of carrying 
out those provisions and of feeding and pasturing 
like his own his mother’s cow, in addition to which 
he provided that David should pay £800 in instal- 
ments for the land, less an allowance of £100 for 
time that David had been with his father. The 
remaining 159 acres of land were devised to Isaac, 
who was to pay £700 in instalments for it. The 
total amount derived for the land and from all 
other sources was, after the payment of all debts 
and charges against the estate, to be divided 
equally among the four children; but to make 
it easier for David and Isaac, the share of each was 


144 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


to be computed and deducted from what he was 
required to pay for his land. 

The inventory that was filed on October og, 
1771, Of the personal property left by Daniel 
Rosenberger placed a valuation of £14 gs. on his 
wearing apparel; and one of £2 2s. 6d. on his 
books. Significantly, too, it listed razors and a 
hone. Of cash, there was a little over £28; and 
in bonds, bills, and book accounts over £561. 

Some of the articles which the widow took 
under the will were appraised as follows: Her 
chest and what was in it, £21 16s. 3d.; her bed 
with its furniture, £9 10s.; all the pewter, £3 
4s. 3d.; a teakettle, 16s.; 2 iron pots and 1 “‘lead” 
(a large pot or caldron such as was originally 
made of lead), 145.; a cow, £6. By the con- 
sent of all the children, the widow also received 
articles not mentioned in the will to the value of 
£18 16s. 

Among other household goods inventoried 
there were a clock and case, which were appraised 
at £7 10s.; and a pipe stove, which was valued 
at £4. There were also 2 tables, 13 chairs, 
delftware, earthenware, tinware, knives and forks, 


GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS 145 


glasses, a plain chest, a chest with drawers, a 
dresser, 2 large clothespresses, several beds, or 
bedsteads and bedding (‘‘one bedstead and bed- 
ding in the old house”’), bed-cases, sheets, pillows, 
pillow-cases, table cloths, hand towels, several 
lots of woolen cloth, blue linings, woolen yarn, 
linen tape, thread, hemp, tow, flax, and wool. 
Of household utensils there were pot racks, fire 
tongs, iron pots, a copper kettle, a bake-plate 
and “lazy bag,’ pans, ladles, funnels, sieves, 
candlesticks, a steelyard, a coffee-mill, and a 
conch shell which had probably been made into a 
dinner-horn. One big wheel and two little wheels, 
for spinning, were also mentioned. 

For provisions there were wheat, corn, rye, 
barley, buckwheat, beef, pork, honey, molasses, 
salt, dried apples, cabbages, cheese, butter, lard, 
and vinegar. For domestic use there were also 
hops, tallow, wax, and soap. Furthermore, con- 
sonant with the times, there was some brandy in a 
keg and in a stone jug or jugs. 

On account of the hay that was on them, two 
stables were mentioned; one for horses, and 
another for cows. There were 4 horses, 1 colt, 


146 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


9 cows, 4 heifers, 2 calves, 1 bull, 10 sheep, 4 
hogs, and 16 hives of bees. 

Of farm and other tools, equipment, and 
supplies, there were listed grubbing and other 
hoes, shovels and spades, axes, a broadax, maul 
and wedges, cleaver, pick, cross-cut saw, augers, 
drawing knives, planes, chisels, pincers, anvil, 
hammers, grindstone, sheep shears, scale and 
weights, chains, plows, harrows, sickles, scythes, 
grain cradles, whetstones, rakes, pitchforks, lad- 
ders, an apple mill, windmill, wheelbarrow, 
cutting-box, flax brake and hatchel, gun, lantern, 
wagon, horse gears, currycombs, 3 saddles, 1 
sidesaddle, harness leather, dressed sheepskins, 
upper and sole leather for shoes, parcel of window 
glass, lumber, shingles, nails, riddles (coarse 
sieves), baskets, bags, barrels, casks, tubs, pails, 
bottles, oats, hempseed, flaxseed, and timothy 
seed. 

This somewhat lengthy summary of items from 
this inventory is given here for the purpose of 
throwing such light as it may on the lives of 
Pennsylvania-German farmers in the year 1771, 
by showing what things one of the well-to-do 


GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS 147 


ones then had, and leaving it to be inferred from 
omissions in the list what things now counted 
necessaries were not then enjoyed. 

The tax list for Hatfield Township for the year 
1789 indicated that there were between seventy 
and eighty families in the township, while a 
memorandum on the last page gave this summary: 
21 single men, 6,833 acres of land, 132 horses, 
292 cows, 3 gristmills, 1 sawmill, 1 tan-yard. 
A similar memorandum on the last page of the 
list of taxables in 1799 for what was then 
Providence Township enumerated 20,639 acres 
of land, 269 horses, 680 head of cattle, ro gristmills, 
6 sawmills, 1 oilmill, 4 tan-yards, 12 distilleries, 
and 11 slaves. 

Daniel Rosenberger’s son David married Ann 
Funk, daughter of Christian Funk and grand- 
daughter of Bishop Heinrich Funck. Christian 
Funk was a _ broad-minded, able Mennonite 
minister, who apparently took a more friendly 
attitude toward the American Revolution than 
some of his brethren thought that a Mennonite 
should take toward war, one of his contentions 
being that the war taxes imposed should be paid 


148 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


without any consideration of the use that was to 
be made of them. On account of the position 
that he took in some such matters, he was eventu- 
ally expelled from the church, after which he 
- organized a church that was composed of Men- 
nonites who were in sympathy with his views. 
The first child born to David and Ann Funk 
Rosenberger they named “ Christian.” 

David Rosenberger died in 1821. The year 
has sometimes been stated to have been 1829, 
but his making his will on March 7, 1821, and its 
being proved on September 19, 1821, show that 
his death occurred between those dates in 1821. 
His wife, Ann Funk, had died a number of years 
previously, and he had afterward married for 
his second wife, Barbara, daughter of John 
Dettwiler. David Rosenberger left surviving him 
six children by his first wife, and four by the sec- 
ond. The provisions which he made in his will for 
his wife Barbara and for his ten children, treating 
the latter in effect as nearly alike as possible, were 
of essentially the same character as those made 
fifty years before by Daniel Rosenberger—for his 
wife and children. Nor did David Rosenberger 


GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS _ 149 


forget the children of a deceased daughter—one 
by his first wife. 

By his will David Rosenberger gave to his wife 
Barbara two beds and all that belonged to them; 
what were called her chest and her clothespress 
and their contents, the chest not to be opened, 
inspected, or inventoried; her kitchen dresser 
with all the furniture thereon and therein; a 
clock and case; a new walnut table; 4 chairs, 
2 buckets; 2 tubs; 1 iron pot; a teakettle; a 
fire shovel and tongs; a big wheel; a spinning 
wheel, and a reel; a ten-plate stove; the choice of 
2 cows, which were to be pastured for her; and 
yearly to bushels of rye, 6 bushels of wheat, 
4 bushels of buckwheat, as much as she might 
desire for her use of apples and other fruit growing 
on the farm; 200 pounds of good fattened pork, 
and 1too pounds of beef. She was also to have, 
for the term of her natural life, the use of either 
the northeast or the southwest part of the dwelling- 
house, whichever she might choose, with such use 
as she might need of the kitchen, cellar, spring- 
house, and bake-oven; and was to have the use 
of one-third of the garden, as well as was to have 


150 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


one-quarter of an acre of good ground sowed 
annually with flax seed, and was to have a suffi- 
ciency of good firewood, ready cut and split, and 
delivered at her door. 

Most of the personal property of David 
Rosenberger, according to the inventory which 
was filed on September 19, 1821, was similar to 
that which his father had possessed, and included 
a razor, hone, and strap, appraised at fifty cents. 
His live stock consisted of 4 horses, 12 cows, 
3 heifers, 21 sheep, and 15 hogs. He had, besides 
a wagon, a wagon body and cover, a sleigh, and 
sleds. Other things that perhaps should be noted 
were a lamp, 2 lanterns, slate, armchair, rocking 
cradle, wool cards, cider mill, frying pans, earthen 
pots, dough troughs, crowbar, post chisel, gun 
valued at seventy-five cents, smoked meat, and 
a barrel with whiskey, these last two being 
appraised as being together worth one dollar. 

David Rosenberger, like his father Daniel, 
lived in Hatfield Township; but Christian Rosen- 
berger, son of David Rosenberger, settled in that 
part of Providence Township that about 1805 
was made Lower Providence Township. 





AN Otp STonNE House (Now Plastered Over), PERHAPS BUILT BY 
CHRISTIAN ROSENBERGER EARLY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 





PART OF OLD CIDER PRESS WITH BEAM 25 FEET LONG 
a 


The flowers are those of the wild carrot 





GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS I51 


Christian Rosenberger has been described 
as having been particularly well off for a 
Pennsylvania-German farmer of his day. He 
apparently did not make any will. The inventory 
which was made in November, 1824, of his 
personal property included these valuations: 5 
horses, $225; 9 cows, $130; 15 sheep, $16; 9 
pigs, $9. It also showed that he had, among 
many other things, 4 lots of books, valued at 
$8; an English Bible, valued at $2; 2 shares of 
stock in the Bethlehem turnpike, $10; riding 
chair and harness, $20; dining-table, 374 cents; 
corner cupboard, $1.25; bureau, 75 cents; desk, 
$5; trunk, 50 cents; 1 chaff bed, 2 5 cents; quilts; 
coverlids; bread baskets; baking plank; kraut tub; 
sausage stuffer, 31 cents; washing machine, 25 
cents; winnowing mill, $12; apple mill and 
trough, $2; cider press, $3; 2 barrels of cider, 
$4; 5 barrels of vinegar, $5; 1 still, $8; 1 decanter, 
12% cents; 1 barrel and whiskey, 50 cents; 4o 
milk pots, 80 cents; 2 churns and stand, 5o cents; 
2 stoves and pipe, $8; wheelbarrow, $1.25; 2 
axes, $1.50; shaving horse, 25 cents; saddler’s 
bench, 50 cents; 2 sets of horse gears, $3; sleigh, 


152 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


$8; 2 harrows, $5; 37 oak posts, $2.59; 100 post 
rails, $5; 1% cords of oak wood, $3; 8 cords of 
hickory wood, $24; hoop net and seine, 75 cents; 
fowling piece, $1.50; clock and case, $12; one 
silver watch, $1.50, and another one, $6; shaving 
tools, 31 cents; and looking-glass, 123 cents. 
These valuations furnish a slight index to qualities 
and values ninety-nine years ago. 

A riding chair was a comparatively light, two- 
wheeled, one-horse gig or carriage that began to 
be seen in a few localities at a time in the eighteenth 
century when most people were yet going to church 
and to market on horseback. 

Christian Rosenberger married an Elizabeth 
Kraut, by whom he had eight children, the second 
one being born in 1797, and named Jacob. 

Jacob Rosenberger was a Mennonite, but in a 
record of marriages solemnized by Reverend 
George Wack, of the Reformed church, as pub- 
lished in the Perkiomen Region, Past and Present 
(II, 115), there is this entry of 1820: ‘‘ December 
12. Jacob Rosenberger and Maria Dettwiler.” 
Jacob Rosenberger died on April 11, 1831. The 
inventory of his personal property, which referred 


GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS 153 


to him as ‘‘late of Worcester Township,” showed 
little that was different from anything that his 
father had; but it included, with other things: 
5 horses and colts, $130; riding horse, saddle 
and bridle, $80; 11 cows, $178; 8 hogs, $36; 
t Dearborn wagon, cover, and gears $8; 1 market 
wagon and cover, $25; 1 apple mill, $5; 1 apple 
press, $8; plow, $1.50; 2 milk cupboards; skim- 
mer; dripping pan; crane and pot rack, $1; and- 
irons, 40 cents; boring machine and augers, 
$1.50; post spade, 75 cents; half-bushel measure, 
25 cents; apple butter, $4.20; 6 barrels of vinegar, 
$12; 6 swarms of bees, $15; gun, 31 cents; 
2 lots of books, $2.625. No liquor was listed. 

To Jacob Rosenberger and his wife eight 
children were born, seven of whom lived to 
comparatively old age, and one of whom was 
Jesse Rosenberger, who was born on May 1, 
1827. 

Jesse Rosenberger soon after he became of age 
set out for what was then known as the “‘ West,” 
and settled for a while in Stark County, Ohio, 
probably at Alliance, in order to follow his trade 
as a shoemaker, although he afterward became a 


154 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


farmer and a nurseryman. On June 2, 1850, he 
married Esther Heim, whose home was then a 
few miles from Alliance—in Columbiana County, 
Ohio—but who was born in Cumberland County, 
Pennsylvania, on July 16, 1833. Both of them 
early joined the Baptist church, and he at one 
time did some preaching. She died at Maiden 
Rock, Wisconsin, on December 12, 1871. He 
subsequently married again. He died at Iola, 
Kansas, on March 20, 1909. 

The parents of Esther Heim were Leonhard 
Heim (as he signed his name, in German) and his 
first wife—whose maiden name was Mary Snyder 
—whom he married about 1831 in Pennsylvania, 
whence in 1840 they moved to Ohio. Mrs. Heim 
died some time prior to 1847. Mr. Heim’s 
death is recorded in the West Township Cemetery 
—formerly often called the ‘‘Heim Cemetery””— 
at Moultrie, in Columbiana County, Ohio, on a 
tombstone which bears the inscription: ‘‘ Leonard 
Heim; Died May 7,.1853, Aged 44 ysitemras. 
16 ds.” Leonhard or Leonard Heim (by some 
persons spelled ‘‘Hime’’) learned the trade of 
blacksmith, but after his marriage he became a 


GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS © 1ss 


farmer. He was a member of the Lutheran 
church. His father was Matthias Heim, who was 
a farmer but at one time taught a German 
school. The father of Matthias Heim was, accord- 
ing to biographical histories pertaining to North- 
umberland and Schuylkill counties, Georg Heim, 
a man of more than ordinary intelligence and 
education, who, with two brothers, came from 
Wiirttemberg, Germany, comparatively early in 
the eighteenth century. He rendered service as 
a schoolmaster and as a surveyor, as well as 
farmed. It has been quite reliably said that both 
Georg Heim and his son Matthias lived in North- 
umberland County, while there is other and strong 
evidence of their having lived, possibly at a 
little later date, in a part of Berks County that 
was in 1811 used in the formation of Schuylkill 
County. From either Schuylkill County or 
Northumberland County Leonhard Heim went, 
with two or three of his brothers, to Franklin 
County, after which he appears to have crossed 
over into Cumberland County, whence he went 
to Ohio, whither also went his brothers, Philipp, 
Johannes, and Daniel. Other brothers. of his 


156 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


were named Georg, Samuel, Joseph, Benjamin, 
and, perhaps, Amos. 

The westward going of Jesse Rosenberger and 
the settlements and removals mentioned of 
members of the Heim family were but examples 
of what many Pennsylvania Germans were doing 
at about that time, in order to secure such advan- 
tages as the newer sections of the country offered 
them. 

A son born to Jesse Rosenberger and his wife, 
Esther Heim Rosenberger, on January 6, 1860, 
at Lake City, Minnesota, they named Jesse 
Leonard Rosenberger. 

Of Jesse Rosenberger; of Jesse Leonard Rosen- 
berger; and of Susan Esther Colver, who was born 
in South Abington (now Whitman), Massachu- 
setts, on November 15, 1859, was of Puritan and 
Mayflower descent, was known as having been 
an unusually competent and successful principal 
of schools in Chicago, Illinois, and who became 
the wife of Jesse Leonard Rosenberger, and died, 
in Chicago, on November 19, 1918, quite full 
accounts have been given in Through Three 
Centuries; Colver and Rosenberger Lives and Times, 


GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS 157 


1620-1922 (Jesse Leonard Rosenberger. Chicago: 
The University of Chicago Press, 1922). 

In the spelling of the family names of the 
Pennsylvania Germans there has been a surpris- 
ingly large number of changes made for a people 
as much disposed as they have been to maintain 
their own language and identity. There may be 
several reasons for this—a desire to simplify the 
spelling of their names, or to shorten them; an 
inclination to make them a little more American; 
or the influence exerted by school teachers, 
lawyers, public officials, and business men in 
writing or pronouncing the names in an American- 
ized form. 

For answering the question as to what was the 
original spelling of a name where, as is frequently 
the case, there are no trustworthy old private 
papers or records to refer to, the public records 
may often be very helpful, and lead to a fairly 
reliable conclusion. Such informal records as old 
tax lists, however, are not of much value for 
this purpose, since those for a number of years 
may have the name differently spelled almost 
every year, and correctly only occasionally. Much 


158 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


better evidence is furnished by the signatures to 
deeds and to wills, or, secondarily, the records, 
of them. 

Thus, the deed, wills, and probate records which 
have been cited, involving the names of Heinrich, 
Daniel, David, and Christian Rosenberger show 
quite conclusively that “Rosenberger”? was the 
family name of each one of them. 

Jacob, son of Christian, was married under 
the name of ‘Rosenberger,’ but at some time 
thereafter he changed his name to “‘ Jacob Rosen- 
berry,’ and some of his children continued to use 
the name ‘Rosenberry,’ while his son Jesse 
retained the name of ‘‘Rosenberger’”’—Jesse 
Rosenberger. 

Important information about names and dates 
of birth and death is also frequently supplied by 
tombstones. For example, there are seven or 
eight Mennonite cemeteries in Montgomery and 
Bucks counties in which a number of Rosenbergers 
have been buried, and in most cases the name on 
the tombstones is spelled ‘‘ Rosenberger,” while 
the few variations in spelling the name are of such 
a nature as a whole as not to detract from the 


GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS 159 


belief that ‘‘ Rosenberger” is the original and what 
may be termed the proper spelling of the name. 
A small number of the inscriptions are in German. 

But while it is supposed that Heinrich Rosen- 
berger was buried in the Mennonite cemetery 
at Franconia, and that Daniel Rosenberger and 
his son David were buried in the cemetery of 
the Mennonite church at Line Lexington, in 
Bucks County, across the county line from where 
they lived in Hatfield Township, there are no 
tombstones to show it or to tell anything else 
about them. ‘The early graves in both of those 
cemeteries were either unmarked or marked 
simply with rough pieces of common stone— 
generally red shale—on a few of which at one time 
or another names, or more frequently only initials, 
and sometimes dates, were scratched, as it might 
have been done, with a nail. 

Christian Rosenberger, it has been stated, was 
born about 1773, and died in 1821. Both of those 
dates, however, are evidently erroneous, for in 
the Mennonite cemetery of what is called the 
- Worcester or Methacton congregation, about a 
mile north of what is known as Fairview Village, 


160 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


there is a tombstone that was erected, as the 
somewhat weather-worn inscription says: ‘In 
memory of Christian Rosenberger, who departed 
this life November 5th, 1824, in the 53rd year of 
his age.”’ 

His son Jacob was buried in this same cemetery, 
as is shown by a tombstone inscribed: ‘In 
memory of Jacob Rosenberry, who departed this 
life April 11th, 1831, aged 33 years, 6 months & 
22 days.”’ Yet, as bearing on the spelling of the 
family name, it is significant that another tomb- 
stone, by the side of that one, reads: ‘‘In memory 
of Susanah Rosenberger, daughter of Jacob & 
Mary Rosenberger, who departed this life May 
2oth, 1835, aged 13 years, 4 months & 23 days.” 

A few tombstones erected within the last 
thirty or forty years for Rosenbergers buried in 
Mennonite cemeteries have underneath the regular 
inscriptions scriptural references which are desig- 
nated: ‘‘texts.”’., Thus; one, reads: ) Texte 
Mark 13 c. 33 v.” Several others respectively 
refer, in a similar manner, to “Isa. 57:1”; ‘‘ Rev. 
2: to)and Phil. irs 2177..\5' Ps) 022.0 As ce ene ae 
4:7-8”; and ‘“‘Job 29:2-5.”’ Those over whose 


GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS 161 


graves these admonitions and declarations of 
experience appear had attained ages ranging from 
fifty-six to eighty-two years, and it would seem 
probable that they had selected their texts. 

The pious, somewhat stereotyped expressions 
which were frequently embodied in the introduc- 
tory part of wills are well illustrated in a will 
that was made by a Rosenberger, in Bucks 
County, in 1817. This will began: 

In the name of God, Amen. I... . (yeoman) do 
find myself of perfect health of body and of sound mind, 
memory, and understanding; thanks be given unto God. 
Calling unto mind the mortality of my body, and knowing 
that it is appointed for all men once to die, therefore I do 
make and ordain this my last will and testament. First 
of all, I recommend my soul to the hand of God Almighty, 
and my body I recommend to the earth, to be buried in 
decent Christian burial at the discretion of my executors, 
nothing doubting but at the general resurrection I shall 
receive the same again by the mighty power of God. And 
as touching my worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased 
God to bless me in this life, I give, etc. 

In this last connection it may also be of some 
interest to note that, after the testator had made 
various provisions for his wife, and for the letting 
during her lifetime of such portions of the farm- 


162 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


house and land as were not reserved for her use, 
he said quaintly: ‘‘And if my wife should have any 
inclination to keep a hog, it shall have liberty to 
go where the tenant’s his Hogs doth go.” 

Another will, made in the same year by a 
Rosenberger in Montgomery County, began with 
practically the same wording as the will in Bucks 
County, except that this testator stated that he 
found himself “very weak in body, but of perfect 
mind, memory, and understanding—thanks be 
given unto God,” and that this testator recom- 
mended his body to the earth “‘in the hope of a 
joyful resurrection by the merits of our Savior 
Jesus Christ.” 

In disposing of the worldly estate wherewith, 
as he declared, it had pleased God to bless him 
in this life, after enumerating a number of things 
which he said he gave to his “dearly beloved 
wife,” one of those things being “‘my pipe stove 
with all that belongs to it,’ he added: ‘‘ This all 
I give to my wife during her lifetime (except the 
pipe stove). If my wife should intermarry again, 
then it is my will that said stove shall devolve 
to my children.” 


GLEANINGS FROM OLD RECORDS 163 


A further provision of this will was: “I give 
to my son my Martyr Book.” 

These bequests not only appear somewhat 
strange now but indicate a valuation of a “pipe 
stove’’ and of a “Martyr Book,” with a general 
state of mind a hundred years ago very different 
from any obtaining at the present time. It would 
be very difficult now to find among the most 
conservative of the Pennsylvania-German Men- 
nonites one who would wish to incorporate any 
such provisions in his will; and it would be still 
more difficult to find a son who would particu- 
larly appreciate the bequest of a ‘“‘ Martyr Book,” 
otherwise than possibly as a cherished heirloom 
or memento of the past. 

Likewise most of the other provisions that have 
been quoted from wills a century or more old and 
the inclusion in the inventories of brandy and 
whiskey clearly show different economic and other 
conditions and frame of mind from those which 
are current now. Even the older people who cling 
most tenaciously to the customs, teachings, 
language, and associations of their early days are 
more or less—although it may be unconsciously— 


164 THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


affected by modernism operating directly or in- 
directly on them through the pulpit, the Sunday- 
schools, the public schools, the public press, the 
daily rural delivery of mails, the wide use of 
automobiles, the extensive railroad and trolley 
systems, the installation of telephones, and the 
things which they see and hear whenever they go 
into any city or village, for no community can 
be found that does not have a considerable modern 
American atmosphere. 

There is a strong and an increasing tendency, 
moreover, among the younger people of virtually 
all classes to conform as nearly as, with broadening 
views, they think they rightly may, to the opinions 
and ways of the world, and to enjoy all that, by 
their new standards, they may be able to of its 
pleasures, comforts, and luxuries, which adds to 
the historic interest and importance of these 
records of bygone generations, customs, and 
thought. 


INDEX 





INDEX 


American flags in school, 82 

Amish, 81, 83-85, 122-25; pic- 
tures, opp. 24, 84 

Ammann, or Amen, Jacob, 122 

Amsterdam, 18 


Amusements, worldly prohibited 
by Mennonites, 89, 102-3, 
104, 106, 108. See also Diver- 
sions 

Animals, domestic, 32-33, 35-38, 
71-72, 145-40, 147, 150, 151, 
153; wild, 4 

Apple butter, 36, 41, 59, 60, 153 

Apple mills and cider presses, 
56-58, 146, 150, I51, 153; 
illus., opp. 150 


Ascension Day, 134, 135 
Atlantic, crossing, 17, 18-21 


Automobiles, 48, 66, 97, 106, 123, 
124, 164 


Baily, Francis, 62 

Bake-ovens, 52-53, 149 

Barns and stables, 2, 37, 44-45, 
145; in views, opp. 36, 44, 122 

Bees or “‘frolics,”’ 28, 33, 65, 66 

Berks County, 10, 155 

Birds, 4 

Books, 19, 23, 64, 74-76, 91-92, 
103-4, 131, 144, I5I, 153 

Boots and shoes, 38-39, 72, 146 

Bridges, 47; view, opp. 10 

Bucks County, 10, 140, 158, 159, 
161. See also Mennonite 
churches, view of, opp. 108 


167 


Canada, 125 

Carpets, 54, 66, 93, 123 

** Caves,” 25-27 

Cemeteries, 72, 91, 107-8, 158-60 

Chambersburg, 62 

Character of the Pennsylvania 
Germans, Vv, 3, 8, 11, 65, 67, 69, 
86, 123, 127, 163-64 

Charles IT, 5 

Chester, 6 

Chicago, Ill., 156 

Children, 22, 64, 65, 67, 76-85, 
95, 106, I13, 115, 124 

Churches, 70-74, 90, 92-96, 123; 
views of, opp. 70, 90, 96, 
108 

Cider, 36, 56, 58-59, 151 

Cider presses. See Apple mills; 
view, opp. 150 

Clearing of land, 33-34 

Clothing, 38-40, 51, 83-85, 89, 
105-13, 123-24, 144 

Colver, Susan Esther, 156 

Conestoga Creek, 48; view, opp. 
36 

Courtships, 66, 67 

Cowes, Isle of Wight, 19 

Crefelders, 6, 7, 26, go 

Cumberland County, 154, 155 

Custom-houses on the Rhine, 
18 

Customs and manners, v, 12-14, 
30-32, 43, 59-64, 68, 71-72, 
94-95 


168 


Delaware River, 5, 7, 25-27 

Dettwiler: Barbara, 148; John, 
148; Maria, 152 

Die kleine geistliche Harfe, 116 

Diseases and injuries, super- 
stitions concerning them and 
their treatment, 135-38 

Distilleries, 147 

Diversions, 65-67 

Dock, Christopher, 64, 76-82 

Dutch, people and language, 
5> 73 OI, 142 


Education, 10, 22-23, 69, 73-83, 
85, 99, 109-10; views of 
schoolhouses, opp. 76, 84 

English language, 23, 74, 115-17, 
139, 142 

English people, 5, 6, 7, 8, 20, 32 

Ephrata, 92; view of cloister 
buildings, opp. 76 

Equipment, implements, tools, 
and utensils, 12, 19, 22, 31-36, 
144-46, 149-53 


Fairview Village, 159 

Fences, 1, 2, 35, 45; Views: 
“snake,” opp. 36; mortised- 
post, opp. 44 

Fireplaces and kindling of fires, 
30-31 

Flowers, 8, 50, 102, 107-8; in 
landscape, opp. 4, 151 

Foods and drinks, 17, 19, 36, 40- 
41, 49-59, 52-54; 58-61, 63, 
72, 142, 145, 149-50; curb- 
market scenes, opp. 50 

Forests and woodland, 1-3, 8, 24, 
27) 33~34) 45 

Franconia, 90, I17, I40, 159; 
view of church, opp. 108; 
schoolhouse, opp. 84 

Franconia Township, 3 


THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Frankfort, Germany, 7 

Frankfort Land Company, 7 

Franklin County, 62, 109, 155 

Friends or Quakers, 6 

Friesland, 86, 87 

“Frolics.”” See Bees 

Funck, Bishop Heinrich, 91, 147 

Funerals, 72, 102, 107 

Funk, Ann, 147; 
147-48 

Furnishings of houses, 12, 31-32, 
59-55) 62-64, 113, 123, 144- 
45, 149, I5I, 153 


Christian, 


Game, hunting, and inventoried 
guns, 4, 9, 40, 65, 146, 150, 
152, 153 

“Gear” or harness, 40, 146, I51, 
153 

General Conference of the Men- 
nonites of North America, go 


German Baptist Brethren or 
Dunkers, 69 


German Seventh Day Baptists, 
92; view of cloister buildings, 
opp. 76 

Germans, early, 4, 6-10, 16, 20, 
23, 24; hard workers, 24-25, 
33-34, 38, 39-40, 65; hard- 
ships of in Germany, 11-16, 
and on journey, 16-21; many 
redemptioners, 20-23; reli- 
gious character, 69-71; segre- 
gative, 7-8, 9-10; temperate, 
67; took good care of live 
stock, 36-37 

Germantown, 7-9, 27, 40, 89- 
90; view of Mennonite church, 
opp. 90; of Rittenhouse home, 
Opp. 44 

Germany, 10, 18, 86, 87 

Grain, 2, 33, 36, 37, 142, 145, 
149 


INDEX 


Grapes, wild, 8 
Gristmills, 147 


Hatfield Township, 
150, 159 

Heilbronn, 18 

Heim: Amos, 156; Benjamin, 


41, 147, 


156; Daniel, 155; Georg, 
te5u1 9250; Johannes, ~ 155° 
Joseph, 156; Matthias, 155; 


Philipp, 155; Samuel, 156 
“Heim Cemetery,” 154 
Heim, Esther, 154 
Heim, Leonhard or Leonard, 
154-55 
‘‘Herrites,” 125 
Hime. See Heim 
Holland, 6, 18-19, 86, 87, 89 
“Hope chests,” 68 


Horse sheds, 97; glimpses of, 
in views, opp. 84, 108 


Houses, first rude, 25-27; in 
Lancaster, 61; in ‘landscape, 2: 
log, 4, 27-30, 42; stone, 
42-44; views, opp. 4, 36, 44, 
62, 90, 122, 150 


Hudson, Henry, 5 
Hudson River, 5 


Indian Creek, scene, opp. 4 
Indian Creek Valley, 3 
Indians, 3-4, 5 


Inventory of personal property, 
in 1771, 144-46; in 1821, 
150; in 1824, 151-52; in 1831, 
153 

Iola, Kansas, 154 

Trish, 6, 20 


Journey to Pennsylvania, 18 


Kraut, Elizabeth, 152 


169 


Lake City, Minn., 156 

Lancaster, city of, 46, 47-48, 
49-50, 59, 61; views, Opp. 36, 
50, 62 

Lancaster Conference (Mennon- 
ite), rules and discipline, ror—5 

Lancaster County, 10, 65, 
81, 89, 92, 93, 125, 134-35; 
vO Opp. 24, 76, 84, 90, 96, 
10 


Landisville, view of old Men- 
nonite log meeting-house at, 
opp. 96 

Lehigh County, 10 

Lighting, by candles, 31, 54, 63; 


fireplaces, 30, 62-63; lamps, 
54-55, 93, 150; lanterns, 
55-50, 146, 150; of Men- 
nonite churches, 93 

Lincoln, 82 

Line Lexington, 159; view of 


Mennonite church, opp. 108 

Liquors, 67, 72-73, 145, 147, 150, 
I51, 153, 163 

Lower Providence Township, 
150 

Lutherans, 14, 69, 74, 85, 155; 
views, Opp. 70, 76 


Maiden Rock, Wis., 154 


Markets and marketing, 37, 48- 
50; curb-market scenes in 
Lancaster, opp. 50 


Marriage, 67-68; Mennonite 
rules as to, 88, 100, 101-2 

Martyrs’ Mirror, 91-92, 163 

Mayflower, 156 

Mennonite Year-Book and Direc- 
tory, 1923, 100 


Mennonites: Ammann or Amen, 
Jacob, 122; Amish, 81, 83-85, 
122-25; amusements, worldly, 


170 


forbidden, 89, 102-3, 104, 106, 
108; baptism, 87, 100, Io1I, 
118-19; Bible, 86-88, 99, 100, 
£5t\o bIshops,)\-96,’ 101,102, 
105, I10, 117-19; cemeteries, 
QI, 107-8, 158-60; churches 
or meeting-houses, 90, 92-97, 
and views of those at Fran- 
conia, opp. p. 108—German- 
town (oldest in America), 
opp. 90—Landisville (log), 
opp. 96—Line Lexington, Mel- 
linger’s, Millwood, Strasburg, 
and one called Worcester or 
Methacton, opp. 108—also 
view of corner of an interior, 
opp. 96; church services, 97, 
104, I14, 115-21; communion, 
101, 117-18; collections, 115; 
deacons, 104, 110; devotions, 
private, 113; doctrines, 87-89, 
QI-92, I00-I09, 122, 125; 
dress, 81, 83-85, 89, 100, I05— 
13, 123-24; education, 90, 
IOQ-I0, 121; farmers, 92, 99; 
feetwashing, 89, 100, IoI, I19- 
20, 122; flowers, 102, 107-8; 
Franconia church and ceme- 
tery, 90-91, 116-17, 159; 
Franconia conference, rules 
and discipline, 105-7; Funck, 
Bishop Heinrich, 91, 1473 
funerals, 107; Funk, Chris- 
tian, 147-48; General Con- 
ference rulings, 108-9; govern- 
ment, civil, attitude toward, 
88, 103, 107; grace at meals, 
113-14; head-coverings, 83, 
BE TTOO, 2200" (iLOG, re ake ea 
114-15, 124; “‘Herrites,” 125; 
horse sheds, 97; hymnals, 
116; infants in church, 95; 
instrumental music, 96, 113; 
insurance, life and theft, 101, 
103, 107; kissing, ceremonial, 
89, I00, 119, 120; Lancaster 
Conference, rules and discip- 


THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


line, 101-5; marriage, 88, 100, 
1o1-2; Mariyrs’ Mirror, 91- 
92, 163; Menno Simons, 86- 
87; ministers, 90, 91, 98-99, 
104, 110, 140, 147; ‘“‘New 
Mennonites,” 125; number of 
Mennonites, 125; oaths, not to 
swear, 88, 101; ‘‘Old Men- 
nonites,” 125; origin, 86-87; 
ornaments forbidden, 106, 108, 
113; persecutions and wander- 
ings, 86, 89; places whence 
came and where settled, 86, 89; 
Reformed Mennonites, 125; 
Rittenhouse, William, 90; 
Rosenberger family: many of, 
members, 158, including Hein- 
rich (pioneer), 90-91, 150; 
Heinrich, Jr. (minister), 140; 
and (i) Daniel, 141, 150; 
(ii) David, 159; (iii) Chris- 
tian, 159; (iv) Jacob, 152, 160; 
also, Benjamin and John, 141; 
schisms, 122-25, 147-48; se- 
cret and other organizations, 
not to be members of, 101, 103, 
106; singing, 96, 107, 114, 
116-17, 118; Sunday observ- 
ance, 104; Sunday-schools, 96, 
103-4, 120-21, 123, 124; Van 
Bracht, Thielman J., 091; 
typical Pennsylvania Germans 
in most respects, 86; Year- 
Book and Directory, 1923, 100 
Methacton. See Worcester 
Mittelberger, Gottlieb, 18 


Montgomery County, 3, 10, 76, 
89, 90, 140, 141-42, 158, 162. 
See also views opp. 4, 10, 44, 
70, 84, 96, 108, 151 

Moravia and Moravians, 69, 89 


Miihlenberg, Rev. Henry Mel- 
chior, 74 


Names, spelling of family, 157-60 
New England, 32 


INDEX 


New Hanover, view of Lutheran 
church, opp. 70 

New Netherland, 5 

New Sweden, 5 

Northumberland County, 155 

Nuts, 9 

Ohio: accounted “West,” 153; 


Alliance, 153-54; Columbiana 
County, 154; ‘“‘Heim Ceme- 


tery,” 154; Moultrie, 154; 
Stark County, 153 
Oilmill, 147 


One Hundred Necessary Rules of 
Conduct for Children, 64 


Orchards, 1, 3, 36 


Palatinate and Palatines, 11, 12, 
14, 15-16, 18, 86, 89 

Paper mill, first, 90 

Pastorius, Francis Daniel, 6-8, 
17; 20-27, 51 

Penn, William, 5-6, 15 

Pennsylvania, appearance now 
where Germans originally 
settled, 1-3, and when they 
came, 3-4, 8-9; early settlers, 
4-6; English title and grant 
of charter, 5; New Netherland, 
and New Sweden, 5; popula- 
tion, 6, 9; Upland, or Chester, 
and then Philadelphia, the 
capital, 5-6 

Perkiomen Creek, 10; view, opp. 
IO 

Perkiomen Region, 
Present, 152 

Philadelphia, 6, 8, 11, 16, 25, 
27, 32, 37, 40, 47, 48-49, 50, 
54, 59, O1, 62, 141 

Pioneers, with the, 24-41, 42 

Proverbs and superstitions, 127- 
38; applied by farmers, 132- 
36; contradictory, 131-32; 


Past and 


171 


general, 128-29; relative to 
diseases and injuries, 136-38; 
superstitions, 129-38; their 
origin and nature, 127 
Providence Township, 147, 150 


Rattlesnakes, 9 


Records, gleanings from old, 
139-63; kept in English, 139; 
port of Philadelphia, of arriv- 
als at, 11, 141; some in Phila- 
delphia for Montgomery 
County, 141-42; on tomb- 
stones, 158-60; of wills and 
estates, 139-53, 161-63 


Redemptioners, 20-23, 43-44; 
view of house of one, opp. 44 


Reformed church, 14, 69 
Religion, 10, 14, 23, 69-75, 79- 
80. See also Mennonites 
Rhein, trip down, 18 
Rittenhouse home, view, opp. 44 
Rittenhouse, William, 90 
Roads and turnpikes, 37-38, 46 


Roman Catholic church, 14, 86, 
87 

Rosenberger, (a) Heinrich: as- 
sumptions, II, 140-41, 150} 
last record, 140; log house, 
29, 43; Palatine, 11; pioneer 
in Franconia Township, 3; 
stone house built on farm, 43, 
and view, opp. 44; Mennon- 
ite, 90-91; name, 158; (b) 
Heinrich, Jr., 43-44, 140-41 

Rosenberger (i), Daniel: farmer 
in Hatfield Township, 141; 
Mennonite, 141, 159;  per- 
sonal property in 1771, 144- 
46; spelling of name, 158; 
will, 141-43, and date of 
death, 141 

Rosenberger (ii), David: correct 
date of death, 148; farmer, 


172 


shown by will, 148-50; Men- 
nonite, 159; name, 158; per- 
sonal property in 1821, 150 

Rosenberger (iii), Christian: cor- 
rect date of birth and of 
death, 159-60; farmer, 151; 
Mennonite, 159; personal 
property in 1824, 151-52; 
view of house he perhaps 
built, opp. 150 

Rosenberger (iv), Jacob, farmer, 
153; Mennonite, 152;  per- 
sonality in 1831, 153; was 
married as “Rosenberger,” 
152, but changed name to 
“Rosenberry,” 158, 160, while 
on tombstone for daughter it 
is again ‘‘ Rosenberger,” 160 


Rosenberger (v), Jesse, Baptist, 
154; farmer, nurseryman, 
shoemaker, and sometime 
preacher, 153-54; date of 
birth, 153; death, 154; mar- 
ried Esther Heim, 154; moved 
“West,” 153-54, 156; por- 
trait, frontispiece 

Rosenberger (vi), Jesse Leonard, 
born in Lake City, Minn., 156; 
married Susan Esther Colver, 
school principal, in Chicago, 
156; writer, 157 [and lawyer] 

Rosenberger: Ann, 143; Ann 
(née Funk), 147-48; Barbara 
(née Dettwiler), 148-49; Ben- 
jamin, 141; Elizabeth (née 
Kraut), 152; Esther (née 
Heim), 154-56; Fronica, 142, 
144; Isaac, 143; John, 141; 
Maria or Mary (née Dett- 
wiler), 152, 160; Mary, 143; 
Susan Esther (née Colver), 
156; Susannah, 160 


Rosenberger, spelling of the 
name, 158-60; texts on tomb- 
stones, 160 


THE PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS 


Rosenberry. See Rosenberger, 
Jacob 


Rotterdam, 18 


Salford Township, 76 
Saturn, 135-36 
Sawmills, 147 
**Schnitz,” 36, 59, 66 
School Management, 76 


Schools, | schoolhouses, and 
schoolmasters. See Educa- 
tion 


Schuylkill County, 155 

Schuylkill River, 5, 47 

Schwerdle, Johannes M., 43-44 

Simons, Menno, 86-87 

Skippack Creek, 10, 76; view, 
Opp. Io 

Skippack Township, 76 — 

Skippack village, scene at, opp. 4 

Smokehouses, 52 

Snyder, Mary, 154 

South Abington, Mass., 156 

Springhouses, 53, 149; view of 
one, opp. 122 


Stoves, 51-53, 93, 144, 149, I51, 
162; view, opp. 96 


Superstitions. See Proverbs and 
superstitions 

Swartley, Henry Rosenberger, 44 

Swedes, 5, 6, 32 

Switzerland, 86, 122 


Tan-yards, 147 

Taverns, 61-62, 66-67 
Telephones, 123, 124, 164 
Thirty Years’ War, 11, 12 


Through Three Centuries; Colver 
and Rosenberger Lives and 
Times, 1620-1922, 156 


INDEX 


Trappe, view of Lutheran church 
at, 70 


Travels, 61 
Upland, 5 


Van Bracht, Thielman J., 91 
Vehicles, 37-38, 47-48, 71-72, 

97; 150, 151, 152, 153 
Vendues, 65 


Wack, Rev. George, 152 


War between England and 
France, 91 


War of the Grand Alliance, 12 


War of the Spanish Succes- 
sion, 12 


173 


Washington, 82 

Weld, Isaac, Jr., 61 

Whitman, Mass., 156 

Wills, old, 140, 141-43, 148-50, 
161-63 

Women, 37) 38, 39-49, 65; 66, 
67-68, 71. See also Clothing 
and Mennonites 


Worcester or Methacton Men- 
nonite cemetery, 159-60; 
church, view of, opp. 108 


Worcester Township, 153 
Wiirttemberg, Germany, 155 


Youth's Christian Companion, 
109 


Zweibriicken, 11 


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